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 Friday following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Padilla, who is being held on $500,000 bail, was slated to make his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
According to sheriff’s Investigator James Merrill, detectives received information last week that the defendant 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 Friday night.
Court documents allege that the defendant molested C.B. last June and December. The circumstances behind the alleged assaults, 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.