One Year Ago Today (June 22, 2022)…A 31-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting two women in Riverside in the last decade may be responsible for additional attacks, police said as they asked anyone with information to come forward.
Marlon Acosta of Corona is charged with forced sexual penetration, forcible sodomy, rape of an intoxicated victim, assault with intent to commit rape and kidnapping to commit rape for alleged assaults in 2010 and 2014.
Acosta pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Tuesday before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O’Rane, who scheduled a bail-setting conference for June 28 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The defendant is being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
According to Riverside police and court documents, the first alleged attack occurred June 16, 2010, involving a woman identified only by the initials “J.L.”
Acosta allegedly abducted the woman and took her to an unspecified location, where he sexually assaulted her several times.
Detectives did not disclose whether he might have stalked the victim, or how she was targeted. She did not know her attacker.
On July 17, 2014, the defendant allegedly raped a woman identified in court documents only as “L.C.,” who was possibly unconscious at the time.
No other details regarding the alleged attacks were divulged.
The Riverside Police Department’s Sexual Assault-Child Abuse Unit had few clues to go on until “advances in forensic technology” enabled them to gather sufficient evidence to identify the alleged assailant, Acosta, according to agency spokesman Officer Javier Cabrera.
He said detectives believe other women may have been targeted, and the SACA team was asking anyone able to help with the investigation to contact them at 951-353-7213. Alternately, parties can also send information via email to RPDtips@riversideCA.gov.
Acosta has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.