Crime & Safety
Fugitive La Mesan Arraigned on Child-Molestation Charges
Jeffrey John McPherson had been missing since December in case involving MySpace.com contacts with 16-year-old boy. His bail is set at $305,000.
Jeffrey John McPherson—the La Mesan accused of repeatedly molesting a 16-year-old boy he met on MySpace.com—pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a dozen criminal charges.
McPherson, 41, was arrested on a warrant Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday in El Cajon Superior Court before Judge Charles Ervin, who kept the defendant’s bail at $305,000. McPherson is now at San Diego Central Jail.
Authorities had been looking for McPherson since December, when the defendant failed to show up for a court appearance, said La Mesa police Lt. Dan Willis.
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Police originally arrested McPherson last June on suspicion of sexually assaulting the teenage boy over a nine-month period, Willis said.
McPherson faces nearly 13 years in state prison if convicted of oral copulation, sodomy on a child, possessing harmful matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct, annoying or molesting a child and committing a lewd act on a child, said Deputy District Attorney Heather Trocha.
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The judge scheduled a readiness conference for Feb. 24 and a preliminary hearing for March 1.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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