A longtime Sacramento County Office of Education employee who most recently worked at Sacramento Juvenile Hall was among 14 people arrested last month in a child sex offenders case in which local, state and federal authorities posed as minors to talk to suspects online, officials said Thursday.
Operation Summer Sentinel, led by the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office and the Yuba County Prosecutor’s Office, was conducted over three days with the Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Officers from 20 police, sheriff’s, state and federal agencies gathered in a room to talk to the men through social media apps and websites, believing they were speaking to young girls, authorities said.
The suspects and law enforcement agreed to meet, and the suspect was arrested, Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry said at a news conference Thursday in Marysville. The conference was recorded and posted online.
“There is no place to hide — not online, not in our communities,” Curry said. “We will go into the darkness, we will find you. We will drag you into the light.”
A 39-year-old Rancho Cordova man was arrested during the operation. He had worked for SCOE since 2004, in various capacities over the years. In his last role, the man worked as a “staff support classified position” with a special education technician at a juvenile detention center, said Xanthi Soriano, a spokeswoman for SCOE. He had not been charged as of Thursday and has been placed on administrative leave from his job.
According to Transparent California payroll records, he earned $16,899 in 2022 with $5,593 in benefits.
The suspects indicated they were interested in sex, which resulted in law enforcement officers “seeing some of the most disgusting things you can see and (hearing) some of the most disgusting things you can hear,” Clint said.
Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson said the suspects come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Any place where a victim has access to chat features online is a site where a predator can target children, he said.
Law enforcement authorities declined to say which social media apps and websites were used to track down the suspects during the operation.
The law enforcement agencies that participated in the undercover operation were: the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the Sacramento County Police Department, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the Citrus Heights Police Department, the Marysville Police Department, the Wheatland Police Department, the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office, the Yuba City Police Department, the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office, the Sutter County Probation Department, the Turlock Police Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the California Department of Justice, and the FBI.
Anderson encouraged parents to monitor their children’s online activity and to be aware of what apps and websites they visit. Residents should call the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office at 530-749-7770 if they believe their child has been a victim. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call 530-749-5181.
These are the suspects arraigned in Yuba County Court:
▪ Issac Covarrubias, 26, of Sacramento
▪ James Cubbage, 49, of Davis
▪ Joseph Kergel, 40, of Woodland, pleaded no contest July 24 to arranging to meet a minor for lewd acts, unlawfully soliciting a minor to commit a crime and misdemeanor exposure of himself to a minor. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19, according to court records.
▪ Kenneth Hill Jr., 30, of Sacramento
▪ Steven Cherms, 61, of Oroville
▪ Ting Thao, 34, of Sacramento, pleaded no contest July 24 to felony charges of arranging to meet a minor for lewd acts, unlawfully soliciting a minor to commit a crime, a misdemeanor charge of exposing himself to a minor and two misdemeanor charges of drug paraphernalia. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19.
▪ Timothy Bond, 54, of Yuba City, pleaded guilty July 24 to attempted indecent assault, arranging to meet a minor who is a registered sex offender, distributing child pornography and unlawful solicitation of children. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 4.
Two suspects have been charged by the Sacramento County Prosecutor’s Office and arraigned in Sacramento Superior Court:
▪ Kenneth Lorenz, 81, of Rio Linda
▪ Kevin Gibson, 58, of Oroville
