Sex Offender Sexually Assaulted Mom Pushing Stroller, Chased Teens: DA

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An Orange County sex offender faces decades in prison after sexually assaulting a woman as she pushed her baby in a stroller and walked with her five-year-old daughter near a Santa Ana market this month, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The attack happened June 4, just an hour after the man exposed himself to two teenagers and chased them, cornering and groping one of them, prosecutors allege.

Moises Hernandez, 30, of Costa Mesa, faces 20 years in prison if convicted on the charges including one felony count of sexual penetration by force, one felony count of lewd act upon a child, two felony counts of indecent exposure, one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of resisting an officer.

"On June 4, 2024, two 15-year-old girls were walking in Santa Ana when a man later identified as Hernandez stopped his bike and approached them with his penis protruding from his pants, the district attorney's office announced in a written statement. "The girls ran away, but Hernandez chased after them, eventually trying to block the girls from running away by standing in a doorway of a nearby apartment building. He groped one of the girls as she ran away from him."

It was an hour later that Hernandez came across a 36-year-old woman pushing a stroller near Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue and sexually assaulted her and grabbing her 5-year-old girl by her neck, according to police.

Hernandez rode off on his bicycle but was later arrested by the Santa Ana Police Department, according to prosecutors.

Hernandez was previously convicted twice of indecent exposure as well as sexual battery and is a registered sex offender.

“Sexual predators will never stop preying on vulnerable victims for their own twisted pleasures until they are arrested,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “No mother should have to worry about being sexually assaulted in front of her young children while walking down the street in broad daylight and teenage girls shouldn’t have to run from a registered sex offender exposing his male genitalia as he chases them. Thankfully the Santa Ana Police Department was able to quickly identify and arrest this predator to get him off our streets.”