‘Healer’ charged with sexual assault

PICO RIVERA – A 32-year-old Pico Rivera man who identified himself as a “healer” was charged Tuesday with sexual assault. At Tuesday’s arraignment, Claudio Rafael Gonzales pleaded not guilty to two counts: sexual penetration by foreign object and sexual battery.

Prosecutors said on May 7, a family visited Gonzales’ Pico Rivera home so that he could heal their teenage daughter’s physical ailment.

During the Gonzales’s examination of the girl, he allegedly sexually assaulted her several times, prosecutors said.

Soon after the visit, the girl revealed to authorities what occurred and Gonzales was subsequently arrested in connection with the incident.

Gonzales is scheduled to return to court for a preliminary hearing setting on June 8 in Department J of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk.

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Published: May 14, 2015 - Volume 14 - Issue 05