Santa Rosa man indicted for felony sexual abuse against stepchildren
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SANTA ROSA // A 43-year-old man has been arrested after being implicated in several incidents of felony sexual abuse involving his two stepdaughters.
On January 3rd, Sonoma County Family, Youth, and Children Services contacted Santa Rosa PD about a concerning report they’d received from a 13-year-old girl who alleged that her stepfather had sexually assaulted her in the summer of 2016 when she was under 13 years old. By the time the incident was reported, however, the suspect no longer lived in the same house.
A detective from the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Investigations Team was assigned to the case and conducted an interview with the victim. She recounted that her stepfather had fondled her underneath her clothing and that she believed he may have also assaulted her older sister.
The older sister, now an adult, was also interviewed and corroborated that she’d been the victim of multiple assaults beginning when she was 13 and continuing for about a year.
By the time the investigation began, the suspect was believed to be living with a different woman and her children. On February 1st, the detective obtained the suspect’s address and began surveillance, eventually spotting a man matching the suspect’s description.
The suspect, identified as Bernabe Cuevas-Ramirez (43) of Santa Rosa, has been arrested and charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child — all felonies. He is in custody at the Sonoma County Jail on $350,000 bond.
At present, police say there appears to be no indication of any crimes against the children at Ramirez’s current residence.
