The pastor of a Glendale church who surrendered to police in the eastern San Gabriel Valley after he was accused of molesting a teenage exchange student from China at a hotel was free Monday after posting $100,000 bail.
Douglas Rivera was accompanied by his lawyer when he walked into the Covina Police Department at 444 N. Citrus Ave. about 11 a.m. Sunday, Covina police Sgt. Ray Marquez told CNS. He was released on bail in the afternoon.
Rivera had been booked on suspicion of indecent exposure with a prior, oral copulation and burglary, Covina police Sgt. M. Colburn said. He was scheduled to appear at Citrus Superior Court in West Covina on Wednesday to be arraigned, according to jail records.
Rivera was accused of watching two girls through their motel window while masturbating in his truck, then breaking into their room, where he assaulted one girl.
The pastor of God's Gypsy Christian Church of Los Angeles proclaimed his innocence in a video shot while on the lam, saying he planed to turn himself in the following Wednesday.
"I did not do nothing wrong," Rivera said in a video posted on Instagram. "I was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
The 40-year-old pastor tearfully asked people to keep him in prayer and said he had been speaking with a lawyer.
Authorities were seen at Rivera's Baldwin Park home towing the Dodge 4500 Ram that he was seen riding in on the night when the alleged assault was reported.
Media images of the suspect led to numerous calls from people who are part of, or associated with, God's Gypsy Christian Church of Los Angeles. The callers said they believed the man depicted in surveillance video and still shots was Rivera.
The assault was reported at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday at Vanllee Hotel and Suites, 1211 E. Garvey St. Covina police said the suspect drove through the hotel's parking lot until he saw a lit room with drapes open and then parked his truck to face the interior of the room, police said.
Two teenage girls visiting from China on a field trip were inside the hotel room. Rivera exited the truck and stood outside of their hotel window pretending to be on the phone for more than 30 minutes before he walked through the hotel and entered the room once the girls opened the door, believing it was their chaperone, police said.
