WILDOMAR (CA)
City News Service [Los Angeles CA]
January 6, 2023
By City News Service, News Partner
A 54-year-old Wildomar pastor accused of sexually assaulting two girls numerous times pleaded not guilty Friday to nearly two dozen felony charges.
Fredy Romeo Gonzalez Lopez was arrested in November following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Lopez is charged with eight counts of aggravated rape of a child, seven counts of lewd acts on a minor, five counts of sodomy of a child and multiple sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting two or more victims in a sex crime.
The defendant was arraigned before Superior Court Judge Elaine Kiefer, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Feb. 22 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
Lopez is being held on $1 million bail at the nearby Byrd Detention Center.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Joshua Parker, Gonzalez presides at a Wildomar church, but the house of worship wasn’t identified.
Parker said that detectives initiated an investigation during the first week of November, following reports of an alleged sexual assault on a child at a property in the 32000 block of Blue Terrace Street, near Palomar Street.
According to the criminal complaint, the two victims, identified in court documents only as “A.A.” and “A.L.A.,” were allegedly assaulted at various times from September 2020 to November 2022.
Court papers described instances where the defendant allegedly fondled their breasts, digitally penetrated them and raped them, when the victims were between 10 and 12 years old.
Details regarding how Lopez was connected to the girls and the circumstances behind the alleged sexual abuse were not disclosed.
The defendant was interviewed at the sheriff’s Lake Elsinore station on Nov. 9, after which he was taken into custody without incident.
He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.