Behind the Badge
In December 2011, the Tustin Police Department received a call about a possible sexual assault involving a 13-year-old female. The suspect was a friend of the victim’s babysitter.
TPD detectives thoroughly investigated the allegations. However, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges due to a lack of evidence.
Now, that same man is in custody on suspicion of committing another sexual assault on another girl when she was about 4 years old. The girl came forward to the TPD in May 2016 when she was 14, and told them the assault happened about a decade earlier.
Gerardo Garcia Lopez
After a thorough investigation that ended in October 2018, Tustin PD detectives turned the case over to the OCDA.
On Oct. 4, 2018, the OCDA filed six felony counts of lewd acts with a minor under the age of 14 against Gerardo Garcia Lopez, 67, of Spokane, Wash., and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
On Oct. 26, 2018, TPD detectives flew to Spokane and, with assistance from the United States Marshals’ Office, took Lopez into custody. He waived extradition and was flown back to California to face charges.
Lopez has been booked into Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Anyone with additional information about Lopez is asked to contact Det. David Nguyen at 714-573-3372.
