Riverside County sheriff’s investigators are actively working on identifying additional victims of sexual abuse allegedly committed by Abimael Hernandez Saldana, a 70-year-old man from Coronita. Saldana has already been charged with assaulting two female relatives who are now adults. The arrest took place in May after a family member of the accused reported the incidents.
Saldana is currently facing charges of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old and sexual penetration of a child under 10 years old. He pleaded not guilty in May and is scheduled to appear before Superior Court Judge Mark Johnson for a felony settlement conference on August 2 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. He is currently being held in the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, with bail set at $1 million.
The investigation was sparked by information received from a woman in Orange County, Florida, who claimed she had been sexually abused by Saldana as a child. The victim stated that she had been assaulted multiple times while she was asleep.
Another victim, identified as “E.S.” in court documents, was also identified along with the reporting party. It is alleged that E.S. was assaulted between October 2012 and October 2013. A third victim, identified as “A.G.,” was abused in December 1996. The District Attorney’s Office has provided these initials to protect the victims’ identities.
Detectives suspect that there may be additional female relatives of the defendant who were molested as far back as the 1980s. All instances of abuse are believed to have taken place at Saldana’s residence on Pine Crest Drive in the unincorporated community of Coronita, surrounded by the city of Corona.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the sheriff’s Lake Mathews station at 951-272-5600.
