Charges pile up for Crystal Falls man
Pacheco faces up to 54 felonies in drugs-for-sex operation
A Crystal Falls man, who is already accused of forcible rape and other violent sex crimes with multiple teenage victims as young as 14 years old, faces more charges and more alleged victims as a prosecutor filed a second amended complaint against him Wednesday in Tuolumne County Superior Court.
David Lewis Pacheco, 30, now stands accused of at least 54 felonies involving 18 charged victims, Tuolumne County Deputy District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke, said Wednesday afternoon outside Department 1 in the old Tuolumne County Courthouse on Yaney Avenue.
Pacheco is accused of running a scheme to trade marijuana to his alleged victims in exchange for sex acts and dealing drugs to minors via the Snapchat app.
Before Pacheco’s hearing, two women protested in Courthouse Square against him being allowed to post bail while awaiting trial. The women alleged that he raped their daughters, both age 14, and they do not want to see Pacheco released, on bail or otherwise.
Pacheco appeared Wednesday on a television screen in Superior Court Judge Donald Segerstrom’s courtroom. He was wearing a mask over his nose and mouth to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He was wearing black-andwhite horizontal-striped jail togs.
Sonora attorney Ashley Belden was appointed by Segerstrom on Wednesday to represent Pacheco because his previously appointed counsel, Carolyn Woodall, had emergency surgery earlier this week and is expected to be unavailable for up to three weeks.
Segerstrom rescheduled Pacheco’s yet-to-be-completed arraignment to 1:30 p.m. Friday before Judge Kevin Seibert in Department 2. Segerstrom also
conditionally granted a prosecutors' motion, without prejudice to Belden, to order that Pacheco has to prove any bail money he raises has not been feloniously obtained.
Pacheco's bail is currently set at $250,000.
Asked about Pacheco's initial no-bail status due to an alleged violation of post-release community supervision, Jenecke said that he was first booked on two separate charges.
The first booking was for a violation of post-release community supervision upon his release from prison, though Jenecke did not know the details surrounding the previous conviction. Post-release community supervision violations are regularly booked at no-bail status, but she said the Probation Department did not file a violation.
Pacheco's current case has his bail set at $250,000 after the Sheriff's Office requested a bail increase, Jenecke said. She also said she filed the motion to prevent Pacheco from bailing until he can show the money he puts up for bail has a non-criminal origin, for example, it's not money he made from selling drugs to minors.
Pacheco was arrested Feb. 23 and has remained in custody at the county jail since that time.