Man accused of child sex crimes faces additional charges
A Crystal Falls man accused of bartering sex acts and explicit photos for drugs over the social media platform Snapchat did not enter a plea at his arraignment hearing Wednesday afternoon after the Tuolumne County Public
Defender’s Office announced it has discovered a conflict of interest in its representation of him.
David Lewis Pacheco, 30, was arrested on Feb. 23 for allegedly coordinating a far-reaching operation that involved the distribution of hallucinogens and cannabis products over Snapchat in exchange for sex with minors and sexually explicit photos of minors.
Pacheco was charged with 32 felonies, some of which include allegations of forcible rape and other violent sex crimes.
Pacheco’s second arraignment hearing was on Wednesday following the first arraignment hearing on Feb. 25, when the Tuolumne County Public Defender’s Office was assigned to represent him.
Pacheco appeared in a whiteand-black striped Tuolumne County Jail jumpsuit and surgical mask via a computer screen in the courtroom on Wednesday.
Deputy Public Defender Mark Smith announced at the hearing that the office discovered a conflict of interest since the previous hearing.
The court plans to appoint either Conflict Counsel attorneys Ashley Belden or Carolyn Woodall to rep
resent Pacheco, but Superior Court Judge Donald Segerstrom said he would not relieve the Public Defender’s Office from the appointment until it filed the proper paperwork and pushed the hearing to 1:30 p.m. Friday in Department 2.
“I’m not going to arraign him without counsel,” Segerstrom said.
Belden and Woodall were not present at the time of the hearing.
The case against Pacheco was referred to as “one of the most disturbing criminal investigations we’ve conducted in relation to juveniles” by Tuolumne County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Niccoli Sandelin last week.
On Feb. 23, a high-risk team conducted a search of Pacheco’s residence, vehicle and storage unit on the 21400 block of Crystal Falls Drive, locating 14 pounds of marijuana, nearly two ounces of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms, concentrated marijuana, marijuana vape pens, tobacco products, alcohol products, and various marijuanalaced snack products that included candy, cereal, and fun-sized bags of chips.
Pacheco is suspected of applying concentrated marijuana to the snacks “like seasoning” and resealing the products for distribution.
The amended complaint filed on Wednesday charged Pacheco with 32 felonies alleged to have occurred between Oct. 1, 2020, and Feb. 23.
The charges include possession of psilocybin mushrooms for sale, possession of youth pornography, two counts of using a minor for the sale or transfer of marijuana, three counts of meeting a minor for lewd purposes, two counts of forcible rape of a child victim over age of 14, three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 16, six counts of a lewd act upon a child age 14 or 15, one count of a forcible lewd act upon a child, four counts of furnishing marijuana to a minor over the age of 14, two counts of contacting a minor for a sexual offense, three counts of oral copulation of a person under 16, one count of forcible oral copulation of a minor victim over the age of 14, one count of sexual penetration to person under the age of 18, one count of sexual penetration by use of force of a minor victim over the age of 14 and using a minor under the age of 18 for sex acts.
The complaint specifies seven different confidential victims for the alleged crimes, labeled as confidential victims 1 through 8 (a Confidential Victim 7 was not included in the amended complaint filed publicly with the court).
Confidential Victim 1 is involved with six counts, Confidential Victim 2 is involved with four counts, Confidential Victim 3 is involved with one count, Confidential Victim four is involved with 10 counts, Confidential Victim 5 is involved with one count, Confidential Victim 6 is involved with four counts and Confidential Victim 8 is involved with four counts.
Also on Friday, the court will address a motion from the District Attorney’s Office to put a hold on Pacheco’s bail to ensure that the money he could pay with was not feloniously obtained through drug sales.
Segerstrom said there was “probable cause” to believe that any money potentially used for bail may have been earned through illegal sales.
Booking documents from Feb. 23 indicated Pacheco was being held in jail on a no-bail hold for a violation of his community supervision terms after being released from prison. Additional charges from Feb. 25 while he was in the custody of the jail put his bail at $250,000.
The prosecution bail document said Pacheco worked in audio installation and also stored the contraband at a local storage facility.
At the time of his arrest, Pacheco was on post-release community supervision, a monitoring program for offenders released from state prison to the custody of a county agency. The prior conviction has not been identified.
On Feb. 23, the team that monitors people on postrelease community supervision followed up on a tip about suspicious behavior involving Pacheco and searched his home, vehicle and storage unit.
Pacheco was initially arrested about 10 a.m. that day and booked into the county jail on suspicion of possessing drugs for sale and selling drugs to a minor, both felonies. Further investigation led to the additional charges and the first criminal complaint submitted against him had 13 charges.
According to a news release, the Sheriff’s Office investigated the alleged crimes through Deputy Ashley Boujikian, a school resource officer, who found out about the alleged Snapchat scheme to exchange cannabis products for sex and sexual photos.
Pacheco reportedly admitted to selling marijuana to juveniles in the county via the social media app, the news release stated, noting that he would allegedly have juveniles “verify” themselves by sending him videos of them smoking marijuana before allowing them into his private chat. The juveniles would place money for the products in their mailboxes.
Investigators determined based on an interview with Pacheco and search of his phones that he sold the items to more than 100 local minors, ranging from eighth grade through high school.
Pacheco remains in the custody of the Dambacher Detention Center.