Pair of “Romantically Involved” San Diego County Men Charged with Child Molestation

A duo of Alpine men has been arrested and charged with more than 30 counts of lewd acts with children, according to NBC 7.

Christopher Harper and Brandon Lightcloud Alto, who were a couple according to Alto’s Facebook profile, are accused of molesting the same three children on separate occasions.

Harper, already a fugitive wanted for three counts of lewd acts with a child and sodomy or sexual intercourse with a child under the age of ten, was arrested March 4 in Simi Valley. He is being held on $2 million bail in a detention facility in Otay Mesa. He is now being charged with nine counts of lewd acts with minors.

Alto faces 24 counts of lewd acts with minors, and is also being held on $2 million bail. Both men, if convicted, may be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

This is not the first case in California history in which a pair of romantically involved adults has allegedly engaged in the sexual abuse of minors. In April 2015, a middle-aged Sonoma County were arrested for sexually abusing an eight-year-old child. The abuse went on until the girl was 13, during which time she became pregnant and gave birth twice. Eloy Cazares-Perez and Flor Angelica Garcia-Morte were convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14, and Cazares-Perez was further convicted of causing great bodily injury to the victim during the assaults. According to the Sonoma County district attorney’s office, Cazares-Perez and Garcia-Morte both sexually abused the young girl and then covered up signs of the abuse afterward.