Valenzuela to stand trial

EL CENTRO – A county Superior Court judge ordered accused child molester Ray Valenzuela to be held for trial in two separate criminal cases following their respective preliminary examinations on Monday.

Judge Marco Nuñez had determined that enough probable cause existed in both cases following lengthy testimony from an alleged underage victim as well as brief testimony from an sheri ’s investigator.

Valenzuela faces a total of six felony charges in connection to having allegedly committed forcible lewd acts with a 13-year-old boy in December 2017, as well as other lewd acts allegedly committed in 2006 with a then-underage victim.

“What we have here is a 13-year-old boy testifying that he was afraid of not complying with defendant’s commands,” Nuñez said, referring to the alleged 2017 incident.

The 48-year-old Imperial resident, who was arrested Feb. 22 in El Centro and remains in custody on a $1 million bail, is scheduled to be back at the El Centro courthouse on July 12 for his arraignment in the two criminal cases.

Nuñez had also denied defense attorney Kerry Armstrong’s request to lower Valenzuela’s bail in connection to the four felony counts Valenzuela is facing for the alleged December 2017 incident.

Prior to Nuñez’s ruling in the case stemming from the 2017 incident, Armstrong had argued that three of the four felony counts against Valenzuela should be dropped.

In that case, Valenzuela is accused of sodomy by use of force or duress on a child under 14 years old, oral copulation by use of force or duress, forcible lewd act upon a child and meeting with a minor for lewd purposes.

Valenzuela reportedly visited the boy’s home on Dec. 28, 2017, after the pair had struck up a conversation and exchanged nude pictures anonymously on the social media app Grindr, the alleged victim testified.

The alleged victim, who the court ordered to be solely identify as “John Doe,” had reportedly performed oral sex on Valenzuela, who then sodomized him twice afterward, Doe said.

Armstrong had argued that testimony provided Monday by the victim failed to prove that Valenzuela had used any violence, menace, duress or force.

“Here we have nothing of the sort,” Armstrong said.

Although Armstrong was also able to get Doe to concede that his Grindr profile was created in a manner that suggested he was at least 18 years old, Doe had repeatedly claimed on Monday that he ultimately messaged Valenzuela prior to their meeting to disclose he was only 13.

Following Doe’s testimony, county Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Trapnell argued that Valenzuela’s alleged actions on the day in question had “implied duress.”

Specifically, Valenzuela allegedly walking into Doe’s home, immediately removing his pants and underwear without asking or saying anything and directing Doe to perform oral sex on him amounted to implied duress, Trapnell said.

“It’s enough to show that it was by force even if no violence was used,” Trapnell said.

In the second criminal case Valenzuela facies two felony charges, including oral copulation of a person under 18 years old, and sodomy of a person under 18 years old.

That complaint stemmed from a victim having come forward in March alleging that he and Valenzuela had engaged in lewd acts initially in 2006, when the alleged victim was only 16 years old, according to a county Sheriff’s Office investigator who had interviewed the alleged victim and testified on Monday.

Despite the lack of any physical evidence tying Valenzuela to the alleged crimes, Nuñez said that a picture of Valenzuela in the possession of the alleged victim that was shown to investigators was sufficient corroborating evidence, according to the preliminary hearing’s low threshold, to hold the defendant over for trial.