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 announced Wednesday.
Bryan Cardoso, 30, faces a felony charge of lewd and lascivious act on a minor. Los Angeles County prosecutors alleged the assault involved “violence, great bodily harm, threat of great bodily harm, and other acts that reveal a high degree of cruelty, viciousness, and callousness,” according to a news release.
“This child has suffered an unimaginable violation of trust,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The alleged actions of this officer are reprehensible and unacceptable.”
As a result of 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.
Detectives arrested him Thursday and the department said he was booked into the South Los Angeles sheriff's station. Jail records show he was released on $100,000 bail the same day.
The department called the allegation against Cardoso “extremely serious and a violation of public trust.”
“As public servants, we are responsible for enforcing the law, not breaking it,” the agency said.
Cardoso could not be reached for comment on Wednesday and it was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney.
County records show he began 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 justify a search warrant. In September of that year, the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station 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 younger girl alleged she had been assaulted in mid-June 2022, when her family went to the lake and later visited Cardoso’s home. It’s unclear 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 did not mention it in Wednesday’s news release.
According to the affidavit, the girls' mother told investigators that she had told Cardoso and his girlfriend about the assaults before reporting the incident to police, but that he had denied it.
Investigators obtained a search warrant and seized the phones of Cardoso and his girlfriend, according to the affidavit. A forensic examination of the devices uncovered text messages between the couple discussing the alleged acts, though some of the texts had reportedly been 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 could face 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 The sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping. and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
In June, another former deputy He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. for sexually abusing four girls, whose ages ranged from 4 to 13 years old.
And at the end of last year, another deputy was Arrested on suspicion of sexual assault an inmate at the Lynwood Women's Prison.
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
