A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl two years ago at her Cudahy home, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Bryan Cardoso, 30, is charged with a lewd act on a child. Los Angeles County prosecutors said the assault involved “violence, great bodily harm, threat of great bodily harm and other acts revealing a high degree of cruelty, malice and callousness,” according to a news release.
“This child suffered an unimaginable violation of trust,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The alleged actions of this deputy are reprehensible and unacceptable.”
Following the ongoing investigation, Cardoso was relieved of his duties nearly two years ago, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Investigators arrested him Thursday and the department said he was booked at the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station. Jail records show he was released on $100,000 bail the same day.
The ministry called the accusation against Cardoso “extremely serious and a violation of public trust.”
“As public servants, we are responsible for upholding the law, not breaking it,” the agency said.
Cardoso could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, and it was not immediately known whether he had retained an attorney.
County records show he started working for the department in 2016 and was last assigned to Century Station.
The investigation into the case began in the fall of 2022, according to a copy of the probable cause affidavit filed last year to support a search warrant. In September of that year, the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department received two complaints alleging that a 13-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister had been sexually assaulted by a family member’s boyfriend, identified as Cardoso.
The girl said she was assaulted in mid-June 2022, when her family went to the lake and later visited Cardoso. It’s unclear exactly when or where an alleged incident involving the older girl may have occurred, and it doesn’t appear to have resulted in criminal charges. Prosecutors didn’t mention it in Wednesday’s news release.
According to the affidavit, the girls’ mother told investigators that she spoke to Cardoso and his girlfriend about the assaults before reporting the incident to police, but that he denied it.
Investigators obtained a search warrant and seized Cardoso and his girlfriend’s phones, the affidavit states. A forensic examination of the devices revealed text messages exchanged between the two men discussing the alleged acts, though some of those messages were allegedly deleted from Cardoso’s phone.
Cardoso is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 8 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.
This is not the first time in recent months that current and former sheriff’s deputies have faced charges involving allegations of sexual assault.
Last month, a former Deputy Sheriff Arrested on Suspicion of Kidnapping and sexually assault a 14-year-old girl.
In June, another former MP was sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing four girls, ranging in age from 4 to 13.
And at the end of last year, another MP was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault an inmate at Lynwood Women’s Prison.
Times reporter Libor Jany contributed to this report.
