Countywide : 37 Charges Filed in Sex Assault Case

The Orange County district attorney filed more than three dozen felony charges Tuesday against a parolee accused of abducting two boys from a park in Buena Park and then sexually assaulting them before demanding ransom payments.

Richard Michael Schulz, 52, appeared briefly Tuesday during a hearing at Municipal Court in Fullerton. He agreed to postpone his arraignment on 37 felony charges until Aug. 18.

Schulz faces 22 counts of lewd acts on a child, 11 counts of oral copulation on a person under 14 and two counts each of sodomy on a person under 14 and kidnaping for ransom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Schwarm said.

The district attorney is considering prosecuting Schulz under the state’s “three strikes” law, which carries a prison term of 25 years to life for repeat felons convicted a third time, Schwarm said.

Schulz is accused of abducting the boys, ages 11 and 12, on July 27 from San Antonio Park in Buena Park at 6:30 p.m. and then calling the parents of one boy demanding first $200 then $100 for their return.

The boys told police that the man who kidnaped them had a gun and sexually assaulted them behind a church.

Schulz has prior convictions for second-degree burglary and armed robbery, according to Department of Corrections records. He has also been arrested in connection with several sex crimes, police have said.