A Lemoore-based Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested for an alleged Mother\u2019s Day felony sexual battery assault that reportedly occurred while he was on-duty and in uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alejandro Apodaca, 31, was arrested May 13, 2026, for two counts each of felony sexual battery and felony assault by a public officer for an alleged attack that took place in the City of Fresno on Mother\u2019s Day, May 10, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a May 14, 2026 statement, the Fresno Police Department said the investigation was initiated by a call for service indicating the victim had been sexually assaulted by a deputy. After the initial response by patrol officers, the department\u2019s Sexual Assault Unit assumed responsibility for the investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon notification of the allegations made against a deputy, police said, the sheriff\u2019s office began assisting Fresno PD detectives by providing information necessary to identify Apodaca. He was then contacted by detectives and taken into custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to information available from the Fresno County Jail, Apodaca was arrested three days later at a Grocery Outlet in Lemoore (1160 Lemoore Avenue) and immediately bonded out of jail. His first hearing is May 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district attorney has one year to file charges against Apodaca. As of Tuesday morning, no charges had been filed. Apodaca is currently on administrative leave with the sheriff\u2019s department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to public records, Adopaca has worked with the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office for three years. In 2024, he earned just over $150,100 in total compensation as a Deputy Sheriff II.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto and Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni reiterated their commitment to holding individuals accused of committing crimes accountable, including those who wear a badge, in a joint statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is more important than maintaining the integrity of our respective agencies, and when serious misconduct is alleged, we will always do what is necessary to ensure quick and decisive action is taken to preserve public trust,\u201d said Casto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing to see one of our own accused of the same types of violent crimes that I took an oath to combat,\u201d said Zanoni. \u201cI want to ensure the public that we hold our employees accountable just as we do community members who we contact and arrest for misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fresno Police Department Public Information Officer Larry Bowlan declined to provide any additional details about the incident. Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. The Fresno County Sheriff Office did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lemoore-based Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested for an alleged Mother\u2019s Day felony sexual battery assault that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[100528,237,88261,723,3552,730,724,720,6873,25118,112,114,113,1057,727,719,721,734,24478,2330,23,722,14009,13,725,25789,15836,7701,16220,13464],"class_list":["post-333644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-aggression","tag-arrest","tag-county-news","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-crimes","tag-criminal-justice","tag-criminal-law","tag-detective","tag-deviance-sociology","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-police-department","tag-issues-in-ethics","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-law-enforcement","tag-law-related-events","tag-legal-action","tag-local-news","tag-misconduct","tag-national-security","tag-politics","tag-public-law","tag-sex-crimes","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-violence","tag-violent-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}