Convicted Sex Offender Pleads Not Guilty In Temecula Case

TEMECULA, CA — A 30-year-old convicted sex offender accused of molesting a girl near a Temecula high school and groping a woman at a nearby mall pleaded not guilty Monday to lewd acts on a minor and other offenses.

Jacob Brian Paulsen of Perris was arrested earlier this month following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation.

Along with the lewd-acts count, Paulsen is charged with sexual battery, child endangerment, attempted lewd acts on a minor and parole violations.

The defendant was arraigned Monday before Superior Court Judge Judith Clark, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Oct. 17 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Paulsen is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.

According to sheriff's Sgt. Miguel Santos, shortly after 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, deputies were alerted to an alleged sexual assault involving a girl in the 40000 block of Winchester Road, near the campus of Chaparral High School.

The circumstances of the alleged encounter between Paulsen and the juvenile were not disclosed.

Santos said that during their investigation, deputies discovered the defendant allegedly had inappropriate physical contact with a woman he'd accosted hours earlier in a shopping mall less than two miles away in the 20000 block of Ynez Road, near County Center Drive.

No one was injured during either of the alleged assaults.

Paulsen is a registered sex offender. According to the California Department of Justice, he has prior convictions for assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, sexual battery and contacting a minor to commit a sexual offense. He served three years in state prison, from which he was released earlier this year, the agency said.