New charges against Escondido molestation suspect

ESCONDIDO — New charges have been levied against an Escondido businessman accused of molesting several children and raping a woman in a series of crimes in Riverside and San Diego counties over more than a decade.

Richard James Sears, 47, was arrested at his home Aug. 29 and booked into the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of committing felony sex crimes against children over a five-year span in Riverside and San Diego counties.

He was originally charged with six felony counts involving two children under the age of 14 — crimes that allegedly took place between 1999 and 2004 near Escondido and the Riverside County town of Perris.

In two amended complaints, the number of victims has grown to six — five children and one adult — and the felony counts to 32.

The first amended complaint, filed Sept. 25 in Riverside, accuses Sears of raping a woman and molesting a child under the age of 16 between 2007 and 2011. The second, filed Friday, added two more victims and said the crimes took place over a 14-year period from 1999 to 2013.

Paul Pfingst, Sears’ defense attorney, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

While the charges have mushroomed, Sears bail was reduced this week from $5 million to $1 million, according to John Hall, a spokesman with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

“We had argued for it to remain at $5 million due to the severity of the charges and his being a potential flight risk,” Hall said. “If convicted as currently charged, the defendant could face a potential life sentence.”

Sears was still in custody on Friday afternoon, jail records showed.

The North County businessman has been active in civic groups in the region for several years.

Shortly after his arrest, he was asked to resign from his seat on the board of the Escondido-based American Heritage Education Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises funds for three charter schools in Escondido. Those schools — Escondido Charter High School, Heritage K-8 Academy and Heritage Digital Academy — serve roughly 1,750 students.

Last month, Sears was also banished from Young Eagles, an aviation program that recruits professional pilots to fly students age 8-17 in general aviation aircraft.

Sears had been a lifetime member of the organization since 2004, and had flown with more than 500 kids since then, said Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for Wisconsin-based Young Eagles. The club operates two chapters in San Diego County.

“Sears is not allowed to further participate in the program because of these charges and allegations,” Knapinski said.

Sears is president and chief technical officer of RS Technical Group Inc., a software and networking company based in Carlsbad. According to his biography on the company’s website, in 1996, he founded a web communications company that was one of San Diego’s earliest Internet service and collocation providers.

In the late 1990s, he took that firm and merged it with other bankrupt Internet companies to create what would become one of the largest privately held collocation service providers in Southern California — American Internet Services, or AIS.

AIS Chief Executive Officer Greg Rollet did not return phone calls seeking comment on Sears’ role in the company, if any.