Claremont Man Sentenced Today for Lewd Act on Boy

CLAREMONT, CA — A Claremont man was sentenced today to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 9-year-old boy in a restroom at the Puente Hills Mall in Industry.

Superior Court Judge Mike Camacho also ordered Richard Matthew Camarena, 45, to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The boy, who had been watching a movie with his parents, went to the restroom on his own and saw the locked stall door wiggled open, according to Deputy District Attorney Rose Carrion.

Camarena entered the stall and inappropriately touched the boy, then left the restroom after the child resisted him, the prosecutor said.

The youngster immediately alerted members of his family about what had occurred, and they contacted law enforcement.

Police circulated video surveillance of Camarena, and he was arrested about two weeks later. He pleaded no contest Aug. 15 to a felony count of committing a lewd act on a child.

At the time of the crime, Camarena was working at an unnamed retail outlet at Downtown Disney in Anaheim.

City News Service, Shutterstock