Huntington Beach man and convicted sex offender faces new child molestation charges

A Huntington Beach man and convicted sex offender faces new accusations of child molestation and additional criminal charges that go back to his participation in an elementary school literacy program, authorities said Tuesday.

Miguel Angel Pineda, 25, was arrested last week after three more alleged victims came forward with complaints. Pineda is accused of meeting the girls while participating in a literacy program through the Boys & Girls Club, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

As part of the program, Pineda would read to students who attended elementary schools in the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, Orange County Dist. Atty. spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said.

All of the alleged offenses occurred prior to Pineda’s conviction and subsequent registration as a sex offender in 2019, Edds said. The meetings are said to have occurred in 2017 and 2018, according to a media release by the district attorney’s office.

Pineda now faces nine felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14. The new charges involve three girls ages 7 and 8.

Santa Ana police arrested Pineda on March 23 after the new accusers reported that they had been molested by Pineda. All three are said to have met him through the literacy program.

Jail records show that Pineda is being held at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange on $1 million bail.

“Children are the most vulnerable of victims,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “They trust without question because they have no reason not to trust. But that trust can be manipulated by predators who use it to select and prey on the most innocent of victims. And now these children must live the rest of their lives with the fear that someone who should have been there to help them instead robbed them of their innocence.”

The Orange County district attorney’s office is asking anyone with information related to this case to contact Santa Ana police Detective Nick Vega at (714) 245-8368 or by email at nvega@santa-ana.org. The Orange County Crime Stoppers line is 855-TIP-OCCS (847-6227).

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