MALIBU : Man Pleads Not Guilty to Charge of Sex With Girl
A 49-year-old Malibu man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he committed and photographed sex acts with a minor.
Ronald Bruce Sindoni, a producer for Malibu’s cable television public access channel, faces arraignment June 16 in West Los Angeles Municipal Court on charges including statutory rape, oral copulation and having a minor pose for a photo in a lewd and lascivious manner. He is being held in lieu of $210,000 bail.
Prosecutors filed charges against Sindoni two weeks ago after employees at a Venice one-hour photo store gave the photographs to police. Police questioned him at the store and arrested him later when it was determined the girl in the pictures was 15 years old.
During testimony at a preliminary hearing Monday, the girl said she met Sindoni in January at KBU-TV, a nonprofit television production company that tapes City Council meetings and events for cable Channel 15. She said she and Sindoni began a consensual sexual relationship while she worked at the production company learning film editing and that the photographs were taken with her consent.
In a statement to the judge, Sindoni accused the court of violating the minor’s constitutional rights “to eat, act and be who she wants to be.”
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