At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

• April 2, 2023

By ADRIAN SAINZ and ANDREW DeMILLO

WYNNE, Ark. — Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.

Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.

Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

Debris and memories of regular life lay scattered inside the damaged shells of homes and strewn on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.

Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but no one in the family was hurt.

“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.

Recovery was already underway, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power.

RELATED: Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

At least seven people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people were accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 other people were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries.

“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.

The venue’s Facebook page said the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains and Revocation.

Crews worked Saturday to clean up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loosely hanging bricks. Business owners picked up shards of glass and covered shattered windows.

Across and down the street from the Apollo stood a mural with an oversized black-and-white photograph of schoolchildren battling strong winds and rain after an especially violent tornado ravaged the rural town on April 21, 1967, killing 24.

In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight others injured after a tornado hit around New Hebron, Bill Burke, the county board chair, said.

Sheriff Bill Rutan said 60 to 100 families were displaced.

“We’ve had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house is collapsed on top of them, but luckily they had that safe space to go to,” Rutan said at a news conference.

Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg called the tornado “catastrophic.”

That tornado was not far from where three people were killed in Indiana’s Sullivan County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 “is essentially unrecognizable right now” and that several people were rescued from rubble overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said, and search-and-rescue teams combed damaged areas.

“Quite frankly, I’m really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 were hurt, some critically, authorities said.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was a high-end EF3 twister with wind speeds up to 165 mph (265 kph) and a path as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).

Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was having lunch at home when the tornado roared through his neighborhood, causing him to hide in his laundry room as sheetrock fell on his head and windows shattered. When he emerged, the house was mostly rubble.

“I see everything around me is sky,” Shahed-Ghaznavi recalled. He barely slept Friday night.

“When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t sleep, imagined I was here,” he said Saturday outside his home.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.

A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon. And in northern Mississippi’s Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

The storms struck just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of town.

Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, and broke windows on cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.

It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.

“That’s a quite active day,” he said. “But that’s not unprecedented.”

Hundreds of thousands lost power because of the sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest. A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.

More than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected area lacked power at midday Saturday, over 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

Blizzard conditions whipped parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, cutting power to tens of thousands in the Twin Cities area. Parts of Interstate 29 were closed.

Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported Friday in Oklahoma, according to the state forest service. Fires were expected to remain a danger through the next week.

DeMillo reported from Little Rock. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report, including Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Corey Williams in Detroit.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Saturday, April 1

• April 1, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Saturday, April 1

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

SATURDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Villa Park 3, Foothill 0

VP: Brown (W, 6IP, 3H, 0R, 7K). Krodel 1-3, 2RBI, Pone 1-3, RBI. McArthur 1-3, SB, R.

Foot: Parker (6IP, 7H, 2ER, 9K). Mueller 1-2, BB.

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Tesoro 7, Trabuco Hills 3

Tes: Faust 2-4, 3RBI. Peper 2-3, 2R, RBI. Kemmerer 1-3, 2B, R.

TH: B. Gray 1-4, HR, 2RBI. Strenger 1-3, RBI.

NONLEAGUE

Irvine 6, Edison 5

Irv: Hew 2-3, 2B, 2R. Featherston 2-2, BB, R. Brito0-2, BB, RBI.

Edi: Winokur 3-4, HR, 2RBI. Hunter 3-4, 2 2B, RBI. Palmerin 1-3, RBI.

GIRLS LACROSSE

NONLEAGUE

Newport Harbor 14, Crescenta Valley 6

Goals: (NH) Matousik 5, Close 3

Other nonleague scores

St. Margaret’s 19, Santa Fe Christian 3

​ Orange County Register 

Pope Francis leaves hospital; ‘Still alive,’ he quips

• April 1, 2023

By Frances D’Emilio

ROME — A chipper-sounding Pope Francis was discharged Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away that he’s “still alive.”

Francis, 86, was hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday following his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square after reportedly experiencing breathing difficulties. The pontiff received antibiotics administered intravenously during his stay, the Vatican said.

In a sign of his improved health, the Vatican released details of Francis’ Holy Week schedule. It said he would preside at this weekend’s Palm Sunday Mass and at Easter Mass on April 9, both held in St. Peter’s Square and expected to draw tens of thousands of faithful. A Vatican cardinal will be at the altar to celebrate both Masses, a recent practice due to the pontiff having a troublesome knee issue.

But Francis is scheduled to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass, which this year will be held in a juvenile prison in Rome. Still unclear was whether he would attend the late-night, torch-lit Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum to mark Good Friday.

Before departing Gemelli Polyclinic late Saturday morning, Francis comforted a Rome couple whose 5-year-old daughter died Friday night at the Catholic hospital. Outside, Serena Subania, mother of Angelica, sobbed as she pressed her head into the chest of the pope, who held her close and whispered words of comfort.

Francis seemed eager to linger with well-wishers. When a boy showed him his arm cast, the pope made a gesture as if to ask “Do you have a pen?” Three papal aides whipped out theirs. Francis took one of the pens and added his signature to the child’s already well-autographed cast.

The pontiff answered in a low voice that was close to a whisper when reporters peppered him with questions, indicating he had felt unwell — “I felt sick,” he said, pointing to his mid-section — a symptom that convinced his medical staff to take him to the hospital Wednesday.

Asked how he felt now, Francis joked, “Still alive, you know.” He gave a thumbs-up sign.

Francis exited the hospital from a side entrance, but his car stopped in front of the main entrance, where a gaggle of journalists waited. He opened the car door himself and got out from the front passenger seat. Francis had a cane ready to lean on.

After chatting, he got back into the white Fiat 500 car that drove him away from Gemelli Polyclinic. But instead of heading straight home, his motorcade sped right past Vatican City and went to St. Mary Major Basilica, a Rome landmark that is one of his favorites.

There, startled tourists rushed to snap photos of him as he sat in a wheelchair, which he has used often to navigate longer distances in recent years due to a chronic knee problem. When he emerged after praying, residents and tourists in the street called out repeatedly, “Long live the pope!” and clapped.

Francis spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery for a bowel narrowing, After his release back then, he also stopped to offer prayers of thanksgiving at St. Mary Major Basilica, which is home to an icon depicting the Virgin Mary. He also visits the church upon returning from trips abroad.

Before leaving the hospital Saturday, Francis, while chatting with journalists, praised medical workers, saying they “show great tenderness.”

“We sick are capricious. I much admire the people who work in hospitals,” he said. Francis also said he read journalists’ accounts of his illness, including in a Rome daily newspaper, and pronounced them well done.

Francis stopped to talk to reporters again before he was driven into the Vatican through a gate of the tiny walled city-state, where he lives at a Holy See hotel. Speaking through an open car window, he said: “Happy Easter to all, and pray for me.”

Then, indicating he was eager to resume his routine, he said, “Forward, thanks.”

In response to a shouted question from a reporter, who asked if the pope would visit Hungary at the end of April as scheduled, Francis answered , “Yes.”

On yet another stop, he got out of his car to distribute chocolate Easter eggs to the police officers who drove the motorcycles at the head of his motorcade.

Given his strained voice, it was unclear if the pope would read the homily at the Palm Sunday service or deliver the usually lengthy “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for to the city and to the world) address, a review of the globe’s conflicts, at the end of Easter Mass.

He told reporters that after Palm Sunday Mass, he would keep his weekly appointment to greet and bless the public in St. Peter’s Square.

As a young man in his native Argentina, Francis had part of a lung removed, leaving him particularly vulnerable to any respiratory illness.

Gregorio Borgia contributed reporting.

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​ Orange County Register 

How Lincoln Riley can help Duce Robinson thrive at USC

• April 1, 2023

As freshman Duce Robinson, the nation’s top tight end who committed to USC on Thursday, starts to get settled in with the football team this summer, another Trojans squad awaits.

In addition to his overpowering tight end play, Robinson is a dangerous slugger in baseball with the athleticism to play the outfield. And there is a strong chance Robinson will not only be selected in the MLB draft, but taken high enough to consider signing an MLB contract.

Even if that dream of Robinson’s is achieved this summer, the current plan is for freshman to still play football at USC, head coach Lincoln Riley said Saturday.

“There’s two kind of knowns right now. One, he’s going to play football at USC,” Riley said. “Two, baseball is going to be a big part of his future, which is obviously really exciting. There’s some comfort level in that we’ve been able to do it with a couple of guys.”

One of those guys was Kyler Murray, who was a Heisman-winning quarterback and baseball star during Riley’s Oklahoma tenure. He was taken ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in the 2018 MLB draft, won the Heisman, then went first overall to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft.

Murray had his choice of sports and picked football. Riley hopes Robinson will have the same options when his time at USC comes to an end. His experience with Murray was a big selling point to Robinson.

“You can be a head coach of a Division I football program that allows a player to go try to play another sport. That’s not the deal,” Riley said. “It’s, can you help facilitate and put together a plan that helps them potentially excel at both? And there’s a lot to that, more than I ever realized.”

When Murray ended his freshman season, Riley felt like the situation had been mishandled. Murray was the backup quarterback and posted a .122 batting average on the diamond.

It wasn’t until the year was over and Riley spoke with Murray that he realized how much had been put on the freshman’s plate.

“You’re trying to train for two different sports, but you also have to recover, you also have to put in the mental training, oh by the way, they’re going to school, there’s that,” Riley explained. “You’ve got communication between two sets of strength coaches, two sets of academic coordinators, two sets of operations, two head coaches, two different position coaches.”

Riley and the other coaches at Oklahoma refined the lines of communication and made scheduling adjustments. And the benefits were immediately clear. Murray was still behind Baker Mayfield on the Sooners’ QB depth chart, but he hit .296 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs as a sophomore.

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Riley hopes to use that experience to shape Robinson’s college experience. If Robinson does not sign with an MLB team this summer, he will likely play baseball with USC. Riley has already talked with head coach Andy Stankiewicz about this possibility.

“Duce has big goals in both sports,” Riley said. “I feel like we have a tremendous plan ready to put out there and then it’s going to be up to Duce to do the work from there.”

​ Orange County Register 

Iowa, LSU vie for first NCAA women’s basketball titles

• April 1, 2023

DALLAS — Caitlin Clark has captured the attention of basketball fans with her historic performance in the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa’s sensational guard will try to finish off the unprecedented run she’s led the Hawkeyes on with a championship when they face LSU on Sunday in the title game.

“I think winning a national championship is how you put a final bow on it,” Clark said. “I think that’s the best way, but we’re going to give it everything we have for 40 more minutes. We know that’s all we have left of our season.”

The dazzling guard, who grew up in Iowa, became the first women’s player to post back-to-back 40-point performances in the NCAA Tournament after her 41-point game lifted the Hawkeyes over previously unbeaten South Carolina in the Final Four.

Now she’ll try to etch her name next to some of the greatest ever to win a title – like Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes, Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson.

Another SEC team stands in the way: LSU and coach Kim Mulkey, who was impressed watching Clark on Friday night.

“That’s my first time to see her play in person, and I didn’t get to watch the game because I had to deal with (the media),” Mulkey said. “When I did get out there, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Gosh, she’s special. She’s special.”

While her team doesn’t have any title experience, Mulkey has been in this position three times before when she was coaching Baylor. Each time she came away with the title.

To keep that perfect record intact, LSU will have to find a way to slow down Clark.

“Iowa is a great team and I’m going to give credit where it’s due. They have the best player, the player of the year, Caitlin Clark,” LSU guard Alexis Morris said. “She’s amazing. I respect her game.”

It took Mulkey five years to get Baylor to the championship game. She did it in two with the flagship school in her home state after beating Virginia Tech in the semifinals.

The Tigers made the Final Four in five straight seasons from 2004-08 led by women’s basketball greats Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. LSU could never get to the title game until now. The men’s team also had never made it before either.

“It is so exciting – I don’t even know how old LSU is,” Mulkey said. “I don’t even know when they started playing men’s or women’s basketball, but it has to be a long time ago. And to think all those great players that have played in the NBA and the WNBA, and they never played for a national championship. That’s mind-boggling to me.”

BIG TEN HISTORY

Iowa is looking to become only the second Big Ten team to ever win the national championship, joining Purdue, which did it in 1999 under Carolyn Peck. The last women’s team from the conference to play in the title game was Michigan State – and lost to Mulkey and Baylor in 2005.

BIG TEN CONNECTION

Angel Reese and Kateri Poole are no strangers to Clark, having played against her when they were in the Big Ten. Reese transferred from Maryland, Poole from Ohio State.

“Luckily, me and Kateri have played them before in the Big Ten, so I know what Caitlin brings to the table for sure,” Reese said. “Just making sure that third and fourth player, making sure they don’t go off and get their 20 points, that’s going to be the difference.”

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PONYTAIL PETE

Clark has been compared to LSU great Pete Maravich ever since she was in high school. It’s a not far-fetched comparison, according to Iowa’s guard.

“I am familiar with his game. I’ve seen a lot of his highlights,” Clark said. “Obviously a tremendous compliment. I saw somebody called me like Ponytail Pete or something like that. I thought that was kind of funny. I think just a tremendous compliment. Like you said, I take a lot of pride in being able to do a lot of different things for my team, whether it’s scoring, but also I think the passing can get overlooked at times.”

NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP

Who: Iowa (31-6) vs. LSU (33-2)

When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas

TV: ABC

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County softball standings: Saturday, April 1

• April 1, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Orange County high school softball standings through Friday, March 31

TRINITY LEAGUE
League
Overall

JSerra
3-0
13-3

Orange Lutheran
2-0
10-5

Rosary
1-2
8-7

Mater Dei
1-2
9-8-1

Santa Margarita
1-4
11-6-1

SUNSET LEAGUE
League
Overall

Marina
5-0
17-1

Los Alamitos
2-0
10-2

Huntington Beach
2-1
7-3

Edison
1-1
10-6

Fountain Valley
1-4
6-9

Corona del Mar
0-2
1-8

Newport Harbor
0-3
5-9

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE
League
Overall

Tesoro
2-0
10-3-1

Mission Viejo
2-0
8-7-1

Aliso Niguel
0-1
12-4

San Juan Hills
0-1
2-10

Dana Hills
0-2
6-6

SEA VIEW LEAGUE
League
Overall

Capistrano Valley
2-0
10-3

El Toro
1-1
5-7-1

Trabuco Hills
0-1
10-6

San Clemente
0-1
1-6

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE
League
Overall

Woodbridge
3-0
5-4-1

Beckman
4-1
9-6

Northwood
2-1
5-3

Irvine
2-1
8-5

Laguna Hills
2-4
6-6

Portola
0-2
1-4

University
0-4
0-5

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE
League
Overall

Esperanza
3-0
15-3

Villa Park
0-1
13-4

Canyon
0-1
9-4

El Modena
0-1
10-5

NORTH HILLS LEAGUE
League
Overall

Foothill
1-0
10-4

El Dorado
1-0
9-10

Brea Olinda
0-1
5-9

Yorba Linda
0-1
3-9

GOLDEN WEST LEAGUE
League
Overall

Westminster
2-0
11-5

Segerstrom
1-0
4-12

Ocean View
1-1
10-5

Garden Grove
0-1
8-4

Katella
0-1
7-5

Godinez
0-1
6-8

FREEWAY LEAGUE
League
Overall

Sunny Hills
2-0
5-4-1

Troy
2-0
9-6

Sonora
1-0
6-7

Fullerton
0-1
14-2

Buena Park
0-2
6-5-1

La Habra
0-2
5-9

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

Overall

Los Amigos

4-2-1

La Quinta

3-4

Bolsa Grande

2-5

Santiago

2-5

Rancho Alamitos

2-5

Loara

1-6

EMPIRE LEAGUE
League
Overall

Cypress
1-0
9-2-1

Crean Lutheran
0-0
7-2-1

Kennedy
0-0
8-4

Pacifica
0-0
9-5

Valencia
0-0
5-8-1

Tustin
0-1
0-3

ORANGE LEAGUE
League
Overall

Anaheim
1-0-1
3-7-2

Santa Ana Valley
0-0-1
5-0-1

Western
0-0
1-3-1

Savanna
0-0
2-9

Magnolia
0-0
0-6

Century
0-1
0-10

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE
League
Overall

Costa Mesa
2-0
8-1

Calvary Chapel
2-0
3-7

Estancia
1-1
4-3

Orange
1-1
1-4

Santa Ana
0-2
5-9

Saddleback
0-2
2-8

​ Orange County Register 

Angel City FC heads to Orlando ready to bounce back

• April 1, 2023

The Angel City Football Club rode the emotions in last week’s regular-season opener.

From the fast start, with an opening goal from Alyssa Thompson, to having a second goal wiped off due to video review, ACFC ended up on the wrong end of a 2-1 result in front of a sellout home crowd.

Now the club will look to regroup Sunday on the road against the Orlando Pride (2:30 p.m., Paramount+).

“The first 20 minutes we started really well,” ACFC forward Claire Emslie said. “When Jun (Endo) scored to put us up by two, we were in a really good possession position.

“The VAR decision was a lot of the girls’ first experience on the field, when the game gets stopped for so long. That kind of changed things, allowing Gotham to change their shape, which made it a bit harder for us to break them down.”

The first VAR decision occurred after Endo’s strike from 40 yards flew into the net for an apparent 2-0 lead. However, after referee Elijio Arreguin went to the monitor, he disallowed the goal due to a foul by teammate Dani Weatherholt during the play.

The second video review that went against Angel City came early in the second half when it was judged that goalkeeper DiDi Haracic brought down Gotham FC’s Svava Rós Guðmundsdóttir for a penalty. Initially, the referee didn’t rule a foul, but did so after going over the video review.

“We showed that we could still create chances in the dying moments,” Angel City coach Freya Coombe said. “But we learned a little bit about ourselves in terms of our responses to VAR decisions when things didn’t particularly go our way.”

Angel City will be facing an Orlando Pride club that underwent a makeover during the offseason. The Pride finished 10th last season and lost its season opener 4-0 to the Portland Thorns.

“Orlando is always a tough place to play,” Coombe said. “They will probably be disappointed with the result that they had against Portland, looking to make that right, especially with it being their first home game of this regular season.

“We’re going to see a very competitive Orlando team come out. There’s an element where they may be a little unpredictable.”

Camberos available

Scarlett Camberos, who joined Angel City FC earlier this week from Club America, will be available, Coombe said.

“Scarlett has been a great addition,” Coombe said. “She was on our radar, playing last year. We also got to see her do her thing when we played against Mexico at BMO Stadium last year. What she offers for us is again, another forward who can help us apply pressure to opposition throughout 90 minutes with our strong forward line. She’s dynamic, great on the dribble, and good at combining. She’ll be a great fit in this league.”

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International duty

With a FIFA international window approaching, four Angel City players will depart after the game to join their respective national teams. Emslie will join Scotland for games April 7 and 11; Jun Endo will join Japan for games April 7 and 11; Katie Johnson will join Mexico for games April 8 and 11; and Ali Riley will join New Zealand for games April 7 and 11.

Angel City at Orlando

When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Exploria Stadium, Orlando

How to watch: Paramount+

​ Orange County Register 

LA man charged with molesting 3 girls in Irvine, using images in child pornography

• April 1, 2023

A Los Angeles man has been charged with multiple felonies for the sexual assaults of three young girls in public places in Irvine, including an assault of a 9-year-old in a library where the man forced the girl to read cue cards and film him while he masturbated.

Christopher Eduard, 53, has been accused in a litany of sexual assault and child pornography charges, including two counts of false imprisonment, two felony counts of inappropriate acts with a minor, one felony count of forcible lewd act on a child, and one felony count of possession of child pornography.

Eduard has also been charged with one misdemeanor count of sexual exploitation of a child, one misdemeanor count of using a minor in pornography production, and one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure.

On March 21, Eduard asked a 9-year-old looking at children’s books in the Heritage Park Regional Library to film him while instructing her to read sexually explicit things off of cue cards while he exposed his genitals and masturbated in front of her, police said.

He was arrested and released on bail. Irvine police detectives then linked him to two other unsolved child molestation crimes from 2021, at two different Target stores in Irvine, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

He was re-arrested and is being held without bail. He returns to court on April 10.

Eduard faces up to 25 years in state prison and three years in the Orange County Jail.

“High-risk sex offenders are the most dangerous kind of criminal and the most likely to re-offend. The kind of person who would prey on innocent children looking at library books or toys and sexually assault them should not be allowed to be out on bail to be able to prey on more children,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

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​ Orange County Register