Worker Held in Molestations of 3 Girls at Orange County Fair : Crime: Convicted sex offender is accused of fondling young women as they went through a haunted house.

A 41-year-old carnival worker and convicted child molester was arrested at the Orange County Fair after he allegedly fondled three girls as they were walking through the haunted house attraction, authorities said Friday.

Richard Allen Lee, who told authorities that he is a transient, was arrested July 16 after the three girls from Santa Ana and Riverside, ages 12 to 14, ran from Cactus Jack’s Haunted Shack screaming that someone had rubbed his hands over their bodies.

A supervisor with B & B Amusements, which operates the haunted house, nabbed Lee as he emerged from the exit and held him until sheriff’s deputies arrested him, authorities said. None of the girls needed medical care, authorities said.

Orange County Fair officials said they do not screen the people who work the fairground’s booths or rides. The hiring is done by the contractor providing the game or ride, said fair spokeswoman Jill Lloyd.

Lee worked for PLB Concessions of San Fernando, which runs several game booths at the fair, fair officials said. PLB Concessions officials could not be reached for comment.

“PLB is one of those independent operators and they provide games at B & B shows,” Lloyd said. “They are responsible for hiring employees. . . . They are not our employees, they are (the responsibility of) whoever is the operator or business operator.”

Lee was assigned to work at one of the game booths but spent time milling around the nearby Haunted Shack, Olson said. When young girls appeared to be scared to go through the attraction--whose entrance features tombstones and plastic skeletons splattered with red paint--he would offer to take them through, investigators said.

Lee was charged with nine counts of felony child molestation, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Nancy du Pont. Lee’s arraignment at Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach was continued until July 30. He was being held in Orange Couty Jail in Santa Ana in lieu of $50,000 bail, said Lt. Dick Olson.

The Haunted Shack, which caters mainly to children, was open for business Friday. In the attraction, people roam through a series of narrow walkways full of sharp turns, howling sounds and flashing lights. People must feel their way through a maze-like structure to get through the haunted house.

Law enforcement officials said they waited until two days before the close of the fair to announce the arrest because they were following up on information that might help them locate other possible victims.

“Now is the time to put this out because we couldn’t locate any other victims,” Olson said.

Times staff writer David Avila and correspondent Bob Elston contributed to this story.