SANTA ANA (CNS) - A registered sex offender was charged Thursday with groping a woman in a grocery store parking lot while she was with her baby and a 5-year-old and exposing himself and touching a teenage girl in another incident an hour before.
Moises Hernandez, 30, was charged with sexual penetration by a foreign object and force, two counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction, a count of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15, all felonies, as well as misdemeanor counts of battery and resisting arrest. He did not enter a plea at his arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana and was ordered to return to court for the hearing on June 26.
A woman who had her 3-month-old in a stroller and her 5-year-old daughter in tow was walking through the Northgate Market parking lot about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at 1120 S. Bristol St. when Hernandez approached her from behind on a bike and allegedly groped her backside, Santa Ana police Officer Natalie Garcia. He was also accused of wrapping his hands around the 5-year-old, Garcia said.
About an hour previously, he had been accused of exposing himself to two teenagers and groping one of the girls near Santa Ana High School, Garcia said.
Hernandez pleaded guilty in June of last year to two felony counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest for an incident on Nov. 28, 2022, according to court records.
Hernandez pleaded guilty in December 2021 to indecent exposure and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors, according to court records.
Hernandez was convicted of robbery in November 2017, but acquitted of misdemeanor counts of child annoyance.
According to a probation violation petition filed last June, he was ordered to register for a sex offender treatment program but failed to show proof of enrollment and cited for going to Centennial Park in Santa Ana when he was not allowed to.
He was also accused of registering with Costa Mesa police as a transient, but was actually residing at his mother's home there, probation officials said.
In 2021, he exposed himself to youths at a boys and girls club in Fountain Valley, according to probation officials.
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