Father, son held in sexual abuse

A father and son remained in custody Wednesday after an investigation into a family member’s report of sexual abuse revealed four other cases of alleged child molestation, police said.

Ricardo Sanchez, 46, and his son Ruben Sanchez, 19, were arrested Monday on suspicion of continuous sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts, said Carl Baker, a spokesman for the Redlands Police Department.

Ruben Sanchez also was booked on suspicion of sodomy on a minor. Redlands police began investigating Ricardo Sanchez on May 13 after a female family member reported that she had been sexually abused by him as a child nearly a decade earlier, Baker said.

During the investigation, two additional family members alleged that they had been molested as children by Sanchez more than a decade earlier, Baker said. Police said they also learned during the investigation of allegations that Ruben Sanchez had molested a family member, who is still a minor, in March, Baker said.

Police believe that in 2006 and 2007, Ruben Sanchez molested a child who was a client at his grandmother’s family day-care center at her home in the 1400 block of Arlene Street, Baker said. The day-care center accepted children from infants to age 12, police said.

The center lost its license in 1996 after an investigation of a previous child abuse charge but no criminal charges were filed at the time, Baker said. Authorities are investigating the grandmother for allegedly illegally operating the unlicensed day-care facility, Baker said.

-- Tami Abdollah