A preliminary hearing scheduled this week for a Riverside couple accused of repeatedly abusing their three children, as well as selling illegal drugs out of their house, was stricken from the court’s calendar Monday at the request of the defense.
Miguel Jacobo, 31, and Alma Michelle Dominguez, 34, were arrested earlier this month following a Riverside Police Department investigation.
Jacobo is charged with six counts of child abuse, four counts of possession of controlled substances for sale and two counts of inflicting corporal injury on a minor. Dominguez is charged with six counts of child abuse.
They pleaded not guilty during a joint arraignment on July 17, at which point Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O’Rane scheduled a preliminary hearing for the defendants on July 30 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
However, during a status conference at the downtown courthouse Monday, the defendants’ attorneys requested that the hearing, which will determine whether there are sufficient grounds to warrant a trial for the pair, be tabled to an unspecified date. Meantime, another status conference was set for Sept. 23.
Jacobo and Dominguez are each being held without bail — he at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, she at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
According to police department spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback, the Sexual Assault-Child Abuse Unit in May received word that the couple’s three young boys, identified only as “B.J.,” “M.J.” and “R.J.,” were allegedly being mistreated on a regular basis at the defendants’ property in the 7900 block of Magnolia Avenue.
The county’s Department of Child Protective Services initiated an investigation about the same time and quickly garnered sufficient evidence to obtain a judicial seizure order, removing the victims from the house and placing them in foster care, Railsback said.
Detectives then uncovered evidence “the parents were trafficking illegal narcotics from the home,” Railsback said.
A search warrant was served on July 15.
“Investigators seized over 900 grams of suspected heroin, more than 300 grams of cocaine, approximately 155 grams of ecstasy and nearly 200 grams of suspected fentanyl,” Railsback said. “A large amount of cash and packaging materials were also recovered. The drugs were found in areas easily accessible to the children.”
The defendants were taken into custody without incident.
Court documents alleged that the children were abused between Dec. 26, 2017, and May 23, 2025. The nature of the mistreatment was not specified.
Neither Jacobo nor Dominguez has documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.