Defendant in Teen Sex Case Sentenced

The former head of Moorpark Project Pride must spend 90 days in jail for having sex with a 17-year-old girl who was under his tutelage, a judge ruled Friday.

Alberto Rios, 25, will also spend three years on probation and must be tested for AIDS, said Judge Herbert Curtis III, who handed down the sentence in Municipal Court.

“The victim was quite a mature individual, and allegedly she was the aggressive [one]” in consensual sex with Rios, Curtis said, citing information from the probation report. She also lied to him about her age, he said.

“But the defendant was in a position of trust,” Curtis said. “The defendant did, in fact, violate the law by having sexual intercourse and other sexual conduct with an individual who was underage.”

Rios pleaded guilty to one felony count of having sex with a minor after a mistrial ended his trial on four such counts. He hurried from the courtroom after the hearing and declined to comment on the sentence.

But defense attorney Darryl Mounger said, “I think the judge is being reasonable and just.”

The crime came to light when the girl “became paranoid” about AIDS after having unprotected sex with Rios in May 1996, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Adam Pearlman after the hearing.

Pearlman asked Curtis to give Rios a 180-day sentence. But in issuing a lighter sentence, the judge cited Rios’ long record of service to the community, and his lack of criminal record.

Project Pride provides tutoring, counseling and after-school activities for Moorpark youth.

Rios is scheduled to begin his jail sentence on Aug. 11.