Deputy Is Arrested Again

A veteran Riverside County sheriff’s deputy arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting two women while on duty has been arrested again on suspicion of assaulting and intimidating a Wildomar woman.

Cpl. John Wayne Leseberg, 42, of Sun City was initially arrested for alleged assaults committed in 2004 and was released from jail after posting $50,000 bail April 26.

On Tuesday, the Wildomar woman called the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to report she had learned of the arrest and wanted to report that she “was also a victim,” according to Riverside County sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dennis Gutierrez.

The woman called the Sheriff’s Department again Wednesday, saying Leseberg was at her home. He was arrested there without incident, and the woman was not injured, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Leseberg was booked into the Southwest Detention Center near Murrieta on suspicion of witness intimidation and committing a crime while on bail.

Leseberg, a 16-year veteran stationed in Lake Elsinore, is scheduled to be arraigned on the earlier charges today in Riverside County Superior Court’s southwest division near Murrieta.

His bail was increased to $2 million.

“We’re in the business of protecting the public’s trust,” sheriff’s spokesman Gutierrez said.

“We arrested [Leseberg] as soon as we learned what he did, we showed his photo, and we publicized what happened. That brought us to another victim.

“We take oaths, and if people show they cannot keep that path, we’ll get rid of them and put them in jail.”

Riverside County district attorney’s spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt said Leseberg had not been charged in connection with the latest arrest, pending the ongoing investigation.

The Sheriff’s Department is asking anyone else with information about Leseberg to call Det. Darin Gray at (951) 696-3000.