A registered sex offender was convicted Thursday of groping a woman in a 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 earlier.
Moises Hernandez, 32, was convicted of one count of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense, four counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction, a count of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old, a count of sexual penetration by foreign object and force, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of touching an intimate part of another person and resisting arrest.
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 at about 4:15 p.m. on June 4, 2024, at 1120 S. Bristol St. when Hernandez approached her from behind on a bike and groped her backside, Santa Ana Police Officer Natalie Garcia said when the defendant was arrested. He also wrapped his hands around the 5-year-old, Garcia said.
About an hour previously, he exposed himself to two teenagers and groped one of the girls near Santa Ana High School, Garcia said.
Hernandez had pleaded guilty in June 2023 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.
He was convicted of robbery in November 2017, but acquitted of misdemeanor counts of child annoyance.
According to a probation violation petition filed in June 2023, he was ordered to register for a sex offender treatment program but failed to show proof of enrollment and was 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.