Ruben Rico Franco ,a man who worked as a counselor at a Banning school, has been arrested nearly two years after a victim came forward with sexual assault allegations against him, police said Monday. Detectives began investigating Franco and eventually had enough evidence to arrest him.
Back in February 2021, the came forward with allegations against Franco. According to the Banning Police Department, the victim said they had been sexually assaulted by Franco from the ages of 10 to 14 from 1995 to 1999 when the suspect was a counselor at the victim’s school.
Franco, 62, was found in San Diego and was arrested without incident on Dec. 1, 2022.
He was booked on suspicion of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, oral copulation or sexual intercourse with a child under 10, lewd act with a child under 14 using force and sexual penetration with bodily injury on a child under 14. He is being held on a $2 million bond , police said.
Anyone with information about the case or similar incidents was urged to contact the Banning Police Department.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi has represented hundreds of child sexual abuse victims of coaches and employees in schools. We were the lead attorneys helping sexual abuse victims in recover $852 million from the University of Southern California. We are also the lead attorneys representing Olympic athletes and victims of former US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar and secured $890 million in settlements for our clients. We secured a $243.6 million settlement on behalf of sexual abuse victims at UCLA.In each of these cases we have helped victims and families get justice by conducting a thorough investigation of the organization and the school . We secured a settlement of $140 million on behalf of 81 child sexual abuse victims at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. This was the largest child sexual abuse settlement by a public school district in history. In many cases we have discovered that administrators and executives know that the perpetrator was a danger to children and either did nothing or actively covered up the crimes.
