Moises Hernandez is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Santa Ana and later exposing himself to two high school girls

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) – A man is accused of sexually assaulting a woman while she was walking with her children in Santa Ana and later exposing himself to two high school students.

The first incident occurred on Tuesday outside the Northgate Market near Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue.

A mother of two young children, who wanted to be identified only as Karina, said the man was riding a bicycle and appeared out of nowhere.

“I was walking with my baby in the stroller and we were on our way to the store, to Northgate… He came up behind me to touch me,” she said.

She added: “I was screaming when he did that. There were people watching. They asked me if I was OK. They thought I knew this person.”

Karina barely had time to react when she noticed that something had happened to her five-year-old daughter.

“I didn’t see it. Some people told me what he did to her. She just grabbed her by the neck. I asked her and she said he grabbed her by the neck,” the mother recalls.

Karina said the man, identified by police as 30-year-old Moises Hernandez, only said the words “I’m sorry” before driving away.

Officer Natalie Garcia, spokeswoman for the Santa Ana Police Department, said the suspect was arrested a short time later.

“A review of records revealed that the suspect had done this multiple times before,” she said. “He was on parole for sexual assault.”

Garcia said that about an hour before attacking the mother, Hernandez did the same thing to minors outside a nearby school.

“In this incident, two women were near a high school when the same suspect exposed his genitals and then grabbed one of the victims,” ​​Garcia said.

Hernandez faces several charges, including sexual penetration with a foreign object and violence, causing a public nuisance, assault, sexual conduct toward a child and resisting public order or police officers. Karina said the whole situation has been traumatic for her entire family.

“Right now I go outside and just look to the side because I’m scared,” she said.

When asked how her daughter was doing, she said, “She’s fine. She’s just a little scared to go outside.”