SAN DIEGO (CNS) — SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A former South Bay elementary school custodian was behind bars Wednesday and facing a lengthy slate of child-sex-abuse charges for allegedly molesting a young girl numerous times over a three-year period, authorities reported.
Edward Damean Puga, 23, was arrested by San Diego Police Department detectives last Thursday and booked on suspicion of 19 child-molestation counts, SDPD Sgt. Saum Poorsaleh said.
Those allegations include nine counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a person under age 14; three counts of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a person age 10 or younger; three counts of sodomy with a person under age 16; and one count each of oral copulation on a person 14 or younger, forcible sex with a foreign object, continuous sexual abuse of a child and possession of child pornography.
The alleged victim was not a student of any of the campuses run by the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which employed Puga as a fill-in nighttime maintenance worker prior to his arrest in the case, according to police.
"Additionally, the SDPD Child Abuse Unit does not believe (there are) any other victims from the school at which Puga worked part-time as a custodian/janitor," Poorsaleh said.
Detectives do, however, believe that there may be a second victim in the case, the sergeant said.
This week, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office charged Puga with committing five child-sex-abuse crimes between December of 2022 and November of last year -- one count of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a person age 10 or younger and four counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a person under age 14. The suspect pleaded not guilty to the offenses during an arraignment hearing on Tuesday.
In a letter sent this week to families of students enrolled in the school district, CVESD Superintendent Eduardo Reyes said the alleged crimes "were not related to" the campuses and did not involve any of their pupils.
Puga, who "passed all background checks at the time of (his) hiring," no longer works for the district, Reyes noted.
Police have not disclosed where the alleged crimes occurred or specified the relationship between the suspect and the alleged victim.
Puga, a San Diego resident, was being held at George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa on $3 million bail pending trial. A preliminary hearing in the case has been tentatively scheduled for Feb. 2, Poorsaleh said.
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