Local Pair Posts $100,000 Bails For Child Endangerment, Delaying Officers
San Andreas, CA – A couple had to each post $100,000 bonds following a puzzling response to what officials say should have been a customary warrant search.
Calaveras County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Greg Stark recounts that the arrests stem from last Friday night when around 8 p.m. deputies arrived in the 8000 block of Greer Road in Jenny Lind. He explains that the warrant was related to the investigation of a robbery that occurred two days earlier in Valley Springs, adding that its nighttime service followed the completion of all the necessary paperwork and obtaining a judge’s signature.
According to Sgt. Stark, when deputies arrived, one resident saw them but went back inside and while they knocked on the door, the people inside began locking doors and turning out interior lights. Attempts to contact them via phone were rebuffed and amplified commands and warnings over a public address system to open the door were ignored.
After physically breaking in through the front door, deputies found the residents standing inside and contacted 42-year-old Rudy Moreno, 39-year-old Amber Moreno, 20-year-old Rudy Moreno, Jr., 63-year-old Deborah Silva, and a 10-year-old juvenile.
Those Present Not Focus Of Investigation
The adults were all subsequently charged with misdemeanor resisting and delaying a peace officer in the performance of their duties. Rudy, Sr. and Amber Moreno were both additionally charged with felony child endangerment, which Stark says triggered the high-dollar bails. Items of evidence linked to the robbery case were recovered from the residence although none of those present were considered the focus of the robbery investigation.
Stark calls the noncooperation of the residents abnormal and concerning. “At that time…we didn’t know if they were arming…barricading themselves. concealing or destroying evidence…So we began [attempting] negotiations via telephone — and when those became unfruitful we had to force entry.”
“Basically, they placed the child in a dangerous situation,” he continues. “Instead of coming out the front door as ordered…they forced law enforcement to force the front door open, causing shards of glass to go everywhere — and deputies went in with their sidearms [which] placed the child in a significantly unsafe situation that was unnecessary.”
By way of an example, Stark adds that a similar warrant search at another home related to the same robbery investigation went off without incident because the occupants were compliant and cooperative.
He concludes his report with this advice: “If law enforcement comes to your house, please comply with their orders.”
