A 55-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a Moreno Valley girl and possibly perpetrating similar assaults elsewhere was charged Wednesday with two counts of lewd acts on a minor under 14 years old.
David Anthony Padilla was arrested and booked into the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on Friday following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Padilla pleaded not guilty Wednesday during an arraignment before Superior Court Judge Sean Crandell, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Feb. 21 at the Riverside Hall of Justice and ordered that the defendant remain held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
According to sheriff’s Investigator James Merrill, detectives received information last week that Padilla had allegedly committed unspecified lascivious acts on a child, identified in court documents only as “C.B.,” in the 11000 block of Hummingbird Place, near Swan Street, in Moreno Valley.
Merrill said sufficient evidence was gathered to obtain an arrest warrant for Padilla, who was taken into custody without incident at the intersection of Swan and Pigeon Pass Road on Friday night.
Court documents allege the defendant molested C.B. last June and December. The circumstances behind the alleged acts, including the defendant’s relationship, if any, to the victim were not disclosed.
Merrill said Padilla is additionally under investigation for alleged sexual assaults in the city of Upland and in Hawaii.
The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.