Riverside County shaman faces additional sexual assault and child abuse charges

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (CNS) – Additional charges were filed against the shaman of a religious sect in the Inland Empire on Friday. He is accused of sexually abusing several young girls. His arraignment has therefore been postponed.

Ricardo Isaac Flores, 59, of Rialto was arrested last month following an investigation by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Friday, prosecutors filed an amended criminal complaint against Flores with Superior Court Judge Walter Kubelun, adding three more counts to the original seven-count indictment.

The revised complaint accuses the defendant of four counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, two counts of penetration of a minor under duress or fear, and one count each of rape, penetration with a foreign object, forced oral sex on a minor, and aggravated sexual assault on a child. The aggravating charges also include deliberately committing a sex crime with multiple victims.

Flores' lawyers requested a delay in his arraignment due to the new motion and the need to review additional information contained in an investigative report.

Kubelun postponed the hearing until Wednesday.

The defendant is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

Sheriff Sergeant James Merrill said an investigation into Flores' alleged crimes began in early August when “multiple victims” showed up at the Moreno Valley Sheriff's Station and said they were abused “at a residence in the 26,000 block of Sandi Lane in Moreno Valley.”

Merrill said investigators conducted further investigation and confirmed that the alleged assaults occurred not only on the Sandi Lane property, but “at locations throughout the county.”

Flores had access to the alleged victims, whose identities were not disclosed, because he was “the religious leader of a shamanistic
community,” said the sergeant.

Neither the specific sect nor the victims were identified. The investigators also did not provide any further details about the circumstances of the alleged
Assaults.

Merrill said a warrant was obtained for the defendant's arrest and served on him at the border on the morning of August 7 as he was returning from a trip to Mexico.

Flores has no previous felony convictions in Riverside County.

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