Sex offender may face charges in alleged Nipomo molestation
A sex offender who sheriff’s officials say is suspected of molesting a 12-year-old girl in Nipomo in 2013 was arrested last week after a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge issued an arrest warrant for failing to register.
No charges related to the Nipomo case had been filed by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office as of Tuesday afternoon, but officials with the county Sheriff’s Office said Mark Jeddell Cater, 45, of Madera is a suspect in the ongoing molestation investigation.
At an arraignment Monday, Cater pleaded not guilty of two felony charges of failing to register as a sex offender, charges that were filed by San Luis Obispo prosecutors Feb. 23.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Cater on those charges in Madera on March 28 and booked him into the San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $605,000 bail.
Department spokesman Tony Cipolla said investigators have forwarded an additional 10 felony charges of lewd or lavicious acts with a child in the Nipomo case, as well as a probation violation charge, to prosecutors for review. Cipolla said he could not disclose details of the 2013 investigation, other than to say that Cater was a friend of the victim’s mother.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information of other potential victims in the case to call 781-4500.
Cater is due back in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on April 12. His listed public defender could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Sex offender may face charges in alleged Nipomo molestation."