Costa Mesa Man Charged With Sexually Assaulting 2 Sisters: Cops

Note: Graphic descriptions follow.

COSTA MESA, CA — A 69-year-old Costa Mesa man, who volunteers to chaperone children at a local church, was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting two girls.

Mark Allen Korando Sr. was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child with a foreign object, three counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 or younger, two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, and seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, all felonies.

Korando was arrested at his home Monday, according to Roxi Fyad of the Costa Mesa Police Department. He's being held on $1 million bail.

The mother of two girls, ages 12 and 14, contacted police in September to allege the suspect had inappropriately touched her daughters, Fyad said. The suspect is accused of sexually assaulting the sisters about two years ago.

Police, who refused to say how the suspect met the siblings, suspect there may be more alleged victims because Korando would chaperone groups of girls from a local church on out-of-state trips to provide services for needy people.

The church was not identified, but police said it was in the 1700 block of Baker Street. The only church in that vicinity is Mesa Verde United Methodist Church at 1701 Baker St.

Anyone with information that may be helpful to investigators was asked to contact Detective Dan Holl at 714-754-4873, dholl@costamesaca.gov, or Sgt. Scott Stafford at 714-754-4933, sstafford@costamesaca.gov.

— City News Service contributed to this report.