Jury Selection Begins in Trial of Man Accused of Sexually Abusing Five Girls
Jury selection began Wednesday in the trial of a 49-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting four nieces and another girl in Riverside over a period of years.
Eliezer Job Mendoza Quevedo is charged with 17 felonies, including forced acts of lewdness on a child, oral copulation of a minor under the age of 10 and attempted aggravated sexual assault on a child.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst called several panels of potential jurors into the Riverside Hall of Justice on Wednesday to review their availability and qualifications.
The process is set to continue on Monday. Quevedo is being held at Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta in lieu of $3 million bail.
According to a trial brief filed by prosecutors, Quevedo allegedly repeatedly targeted four nieces and another girl not related to him between 2004 and 2016, whenever the children were between the ages of 8 and 10 — never older.
The alleged assaults occurred in apartment buildings at the 5300 block of El Molino Avenue and the 5600 block of Arlington Avenue in Riverside.
The brief detailed instances where the defendant found ways to be alone with the girls, generally in their bedrooms while they played games, and allegedly fondled their private parts.
Quevedo would allegedly force open her legs so he could “digitally penetrate” the minor, the order said.
In the case of a niece, when she was 8 years old, Quevedo allegedly on one occasion “entered her bedroom (and) bent her over the bed,” the brief reads.
“He stood behind her and rubbed his penis on her buttocks, over her clothes,” the court filings say.
One of his favorite alleged molestation methods, according to prosecutors, was forcing the girls to sit on his pelvic region while he did sit-ups. The victims told investigators that Quevedo made no attempt to hide his excitement.
The only child who vigorously resisted was the non-relative whose mother left her as part of the defendant’s wife’s babysitting job, prosecutors said.
The victim said that when the defendant tried to pet her, she screamed and forced him to stop immediately. Another time, he grabbed her buttocks, and she fought him off and called her father, according to court documents.
The incident was reported to law enforcement, but little came of it, according to prosecutors.
The investigation only began in earnest in April 2021, when one of the nieces, aged 19, contacted Riverside Police Department detectives after being encouraged to speak up by advisers, according to court records.
Quevedo was taken into custody without incident at an apartment building on Mount Vernon Street on the morning of April 16, 2021.
The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
