Suspect in Sex Assaults Was Visting Family for Holiday

A Florida man visiting relatives for the holidays was in custody Friday in connection with sexual assaults on seven women in three Orange County coastal communities, police said.

Melvin Earl Miller, 26, of Fort Lauderdale was apprehended in Laguna Beach and held on suspicion of sexual battery in three of the cases, said Sgt. Greg Bartz of the Laguna Beach Police Department. Miller also faces a charge of resisting arrest for allegedly running from an officer who approached him on the beach.

Miller was being held in the Orange County Jail awaiting arraignment, which could come Monday or Tuesday, Bartz said.

Miller is a suspect in seven sexual assaults Thursday, Bartz said: four in Laguna Beach, two in Newport Beach and one in Sunset Beach. Miller was booked in Laguna Beach on Thursday in connection with three of the four incidents there. The other four incidents are still being investigated, authorities said.

Two of the Laguna Beach women filed complaints against Miller, police said. A third woman could not positively identify Miller as her attacker. Police said they will interview a fourth woman Monday after she returns from a weekend out of town.

In the first incident, at 1:40 a.m. Thursday in Sunset Beach, an intruder attacked a woman in her home. Two other assaults occurred in Newport Beach about 90 minutes later, one in a woman’s home and another in an alley.

Thursday afternoon in Laguna Beach, police received reports of the other incidents, in which a man approached female joggers to ask for the time, then fondled them and fled.

Miller had moved from Mission Viejo several years ago and was visiting his mother and brother there, Bartz said. He said Miller was living with his father in Florida and is unemployed.

Laguna Beach officials said they have alerted other police agencies about the arrest and are seeking possible links to other recent assaults in the area.