One Year Ago Today (March 3, 2022)…A former church youth counselor from Riverside accused of sexually assaulting a young girl multiple times over a five-year span must stand trial on five counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, a judge ruled.
Jaime Alejandre Gonzalez, 65, was arrested in July following an investigation by the Riverside Police Department’s Sexual Assault-Child Abuse Unit.
At the end of a preliminary hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher found there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial on the felony charges and scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for March 17.
Fisher left Gonzalez’s bail set at $150,000. He was being held at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
According to police, Gonzalez worked as a youth counselor for Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine on Ninth Street, and between 2010 and 2015, he was in contact with the victim, whose identity was not disclosed.
Investigators allege that the defendant transported the girl between the Catholic church and other locations as part of his job, and while he had her next to him in his car, he allegedly assaulted her, though specific details were not provided.
Last summer, the victim, now in her late teens, revealed what had allegedly transpired during that time, culminating in the SACA investigation, which led to the criminal complaint against Gonzalez.
According to court records, he has a misdemeanor DUI conviction from 2015, but no prior documented felony convictions.