Youth Ministry Director Faces 4 Sexual Assault Charges Against Teen

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — An Orange County-based children's ministry director was charged by county prosecutors with sexually assaulting a teenage girl and secretly recording her to make child pornography, OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement Monday.

39-year-old Sonny Angel Cabugao Boloico, of Aliso Viejo, was arrested on Oct. 31 on suspicion of sexual assault crimes against a teenage girl.

Boloico faces a total of four charges, including one felony count of sexual penetration of a child over 14 by a foreign object and force, one felony count of sexual penetration of an unconscious victim, one felony count of a lewd act upon a child age 14 or 15 and one felony count of using an underage person for obscene matter.

He faces a total sentence of 11 years and four months if convicted on all charges, prosecutors said.

Boloico has held children-related jobs in schools and churches in Laguna Niguel, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Tustin and Orange.

According to the OCDA, Boloico taught music and dance and also worked as an after school program leader. Since 2012, he has worked at multiple schools throughout Orange County as a children's ministry director, dance instructor, drama teacher, creative arts teacher and after school program leader, prosecutors said.

Boloico worked at the Community Roots Academy in Laguna Niguel, the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center in Santa Ana, the Southeastern California—OC Grace Church in Garden Grove, Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Tustin and Storeybook Creative Dance in Orange.

He last worked for the Newport Subacute Healthcare Center in Costa Mesa, where he worked with the elderly, prosecutors said.

Due to Boloico's extensive history involving children-centered jobs, authorities are seeking the public's help in identifying any other potential victims.

"Parents should have the peace of mind that the teachers and clergy they have around their children are there to teach them, not to prey on them," OCDA Todd Spitzer said in a statement. "It is unconscionable that this individual used a position of trust to groom his young victim and exploit her vulnerability."

Boloico is scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 16 at the Central Justice Center. He is currently being held at the Theo Lacy Facility in lieu of $500,000 bail, prosecutors said.