Ex-Police Cadet Faces Charges of Sex With a Minor, Theft

POMONA —  A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s Explorer is scheduled to appear in Pomona Superior Court today on charges of having sex with a minor under his supervision and embezzling about $2,000 from the Huntington Park Police Department, where he became a police cadet.

John Cesar Morales, 19, of Valinda is charged with four felony counts of having sex with a minor, plus counts of grand theft and receiving stolen property. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held on $100,000 bail.

A judge is expected Friday to set a date for his preliminary hearing.

While a “drill sergeant” overseeing other Explorers at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in San Dimas, Morales allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old girl under his supervision, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Weiss said.

The alleged incidents of statutory rape began in March 1999, when the girl was 14, and ended a year later when she was 15 and confided the incidents to her parents, according to Weiss.

While a sheriff’s Explorer, Morales was hired as a Huntington Park police cadet. Weiss said that, between March 25 and April 15, Morales allegedly stole checks that citizens wrote to the department as payment for various fines. Instead of depositing the checks into city bank accounts, as was his job, Morales allegedly put them in his own account, Weiss said.

Weiss said Morales has resigned from the Huntington Park Police Department.