The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office filed six charges against a Santa Clarita man alleging he drugged a woman and then sexually assaulted her while the two were in a car parked at the parking lot of Plum Canyon Park in June.
Deangelo Lee Rivera, a 20-year-old warehouse worker from Santa Clarita, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six felonies accusing him of drugging his victim and then taking advantage of her.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies were called to the 18800 block of Skyline Ranch Road around 11 p.m. June 5, regarding “a possible sexual assault at a public park,” according to a previous email from Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
The station received a call from a witness who said a man was having sex with a semiconscious woman in the parking lot, according to the station’s preliminary report.
“Deputies arrived on the scene and located an adult male and an adult female,” Jensen wrote in his statement. “Based on the initial investigation, deputies determined that a sexual encounter had occurred and that the female victim was heavily intoxicated and unable to provide consent.”
Rivera’s charges include sexual assault by anesthesia or controlled substance and sexual assault of an unconscious person.
The criminal complaint also alleges several rules of court violations that could add significant time to a sentence upon a conviction: that the victim was particularly vulnerable; there was a degree of sophistication and planning; he took advantage of a position of trust; and that he engaged in violent conduct that “indicates a serious danger to society.”
Rivera was released in lieu of $100,000 bond on June 6, which was ordered to stand Wednesday.
He is subject to electronic monitoring while he awaits trial and has been ordered to stay away from the alleged victim due to a criminal protective order that was issued in court, per the minute order from his hearing.
Rivera was ordered back to L.A. County Superior Court in San Fernando on Aug. 13 to schedule a preliminary hearing at a future date, when the D.A.’s Office will be expected to present its case to Judge David Stuart.
Data from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Transparency Promise website indicates the number of sexual assaults reported to the SCV Sheriff’s Station for the first five months of the year indicates are on pace to increase by more than 100%.
There were nine reported last year in 2024 for the first five months, and 20 this year. There were a total of 28 reported in 2024 and 33 in 2023.
