Man Charged With Repeatedly Sexually Assaulting Elsinore Girl

MURRIETA (CNS) – A 40-year-old man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a Lake Elsinore girl was charged Monday with more than a dozen felony counts. Ronald Misael Andino Rodriguez of Lake Elsinore was arrested last week following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation. Rodriguez is charged with 12 counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old, two counts each of aggravated sexual assault of a minor and oral copulation of a minor, as well as sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting a vulnerable victim, inflicting bodily injury and kidnapping to commit a sexual offense. The defendant pleaded not guilty during an arraignment before Superior Court Judge Elaine Kiefer, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 5 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta and ordered that he be held in lieu of $2 million bail at the nearby Byrd Detention Center. According to sheriff’s officials, in early March, deputies received a report of a sexual assault involving a girl, identified in court documents by the initials "D.A.H.," and the investigation pointed to Rodriguez as the alleged perpetrator. Court papers indicated that between July 2020 and March 2 of this year, when the victim was between 10 and 12 years old, Rodriguez raped, molested and otherwise assaulted her while having a "position of trust and confidence," though his specific connection to the girl wasn’t divulged. The locations of the alleged acts were not provided. Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Reese said that investigators tracked Rodriguez to a residence in the 33000 block of Mission Trail, where an arrest warrant was served, and he was taken into custody without incident, Wednesday afternoon. The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.