COSTA MESA : 5 More Girls Claim Fondling at O.C. Fair

Five more girls have claimed they were molested by a carnival worker last month in the haunted house attraction at the Orange County Fair, Orange County sheriff’s officials said Friday.

Richard Allen Lee, 41, a twice-convicted child molester, was accused of fondling at least three girls on the evening of July 16, as they entered the haunted house attraction, authorities said. He faces nine counts of child molestation.

The three girls, ages 12 to 14, exited the Cactus Jack Haunted House attraction screaming that someone had rubbed his hands all over them, according to a sheriff’s official.

A supervisor with B&B; Amusements, which operated the haunted house, held Lee until police arrived.

Lee denied the accusations in a jailhouse interview last month, saying that he went into the attraction to look for his stepson. The haunted house was located near a game booth where Lee worked before he was arrested.

Lee said the girls ran into him near the end of the attraction.

This week, five other girls, all of them preteens living in Orange County, reported the new allegations to the Sheriff’s Department after learning of the original charges against Lee in the news, said Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson.

Two 10-year-olds from Costa Mesa, another two 10-year-olds from Buena Park and an 11-year-old girl from Seal Beach have made claims that Lee fondled them, he said.

“We are preparing to interview them now,” Olson said.

Lee is being held at the Orange County Jail on $50,000 bond. Anyone with additional information is asked to call investigator Mark Simon at (714) 647-7449.