Man denies molesting girl

A German man accused of molesting an 8-year-old girl at a Newport Beach RV park also had a laptop computer containing hundreds of child pornography photos and a narrative story about an adult having sex with a child, authorities said Thursday.

Michael Roeder, 27, pleaded not guilty to charges that he committed a lewd act on the girl while he was helping her onto a floating buoy in the bay at the Newport Dunes resort on Aug. 23.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ignored the requests of Roeder’s attorney and denied bail to the German citizen.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lynda Fernandez told the judge that Roeder’s actions were “predatory” and that he shouldn’t receive bail because he had expressed interest in returning to Germany.

“I feel that no bail is appropriate because the risk he poses to the community and the risk of flight is great,” Fernandez said outside court Thursday.

Roeder was traveling in a rented RV with his longtime girlfriend and her sister when they stopped at Newport Dunes.

Roeder’s attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, said his client didn’t intend to touch the girl inappropriately. Diamond said Roeder was helping two girls onto a floating buoy when police allege Roeder inappropriately touched one of the girls.

“He did not deliberately do this to this girl,” Diamond said.

The girl told her parents, who notified Newport Dunes security. A security guard confronted Roeder, told him that he was in trouble for swimming in an unauthorized area, and Roeder and his friends left the campground, Diamond said.

Roeder was arrested Sept. 9 in Oakland while returning the rented RV. After he was in custody and confronted by police about the alleged molestation, Diamond said his client wrote a letter of apology — not admitting any wrongdoing, but saying that he was sorry if he hurt the girl.

Investigators found nearly 1,000 images of child pornography on Roeder’s laptop computer inside the RV. They also discovered a story written on the laptop about an adult man having sex with an 8-year-old child, Fernandez said.

Fernandez said it’s unclear who wrote the story.

The child pornography, some of which had been deleted, was the remnants of pornography that Roeder received from a friend, Diamond said.

“He has friends who send him pornography — most of it is adult pornography,” Roeder said.

Diamond said his client deleted a majority of the child pornography and he will have a computer expert testify to that.

A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 4 in Orange County Superior Court.