U.S. Customs Agent Charged in Sexual Assault

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent was charged today with rape and other sex crimes for allegedly attacking a woman last year while off duty in Garden Grove.

Miguel Lerma Jr., 31, of Fountain Valley, is charged with the following felonies, according to court records:  rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation and rape by use of drugs, all felonies. Lerma was scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon at the West Justice Center in Westminster.

Garden Grove police last week said that Lerma picked up a 20-year-old woman on Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana about 2 a.m. Nov. 14 2010. Lerma allegedly drove the woman to the 11800 block of Cardinal Circle and sexually assaulted her, according to Garden Grove police Lt. John Keely.

Authorities allege that DNA evidence links Lerma to that attack and to another unrelated 2009 case in Long Beach. Garden Grove investigators arrested Lerma in Fountain Valley on Thursday as he was leaving for work.

City News Service contributed to this story.