A former California Superior Court judge has been charged with sexually assaulting two court employees, then trying to cover up the misconduct.
Adolfo Corona, 66, was charged Thursday by a federal grand jury in Fresno in a five-count indictment that includes allegations of sexual assault, making false statements to cover up the assault and obstructing an investigation into his purported sexual assault of another woman in his chambers, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
The two assaults occurred on Dec. 5, 2023, and March 14, 2024, prosecutors said. Corona reportedly retired on May 1, 2024.
The latter incident involved Corona leading a court employee “into a courthouse stairwell where he sexually assaulted her,” then lying to the FBI and court administrators about it, the DOJ said.
That came a little over three months after Corona was alone with another court employee in his chambers for about two hours.
“She was later found alone in the judge’s chambers after being passed out,” the DOJ said.
According to the indictment, Corona lied to the FBI, asserting that he’d left the woman in his chambers while he went to pick up a motorcycle.
“Corona allegedly attempted to persuade a motorcycle dealership employee to change company records to falsely reflect that he had picked up his motorcycle in order to corroborate his alibi,” the DOJ said.
If convicted, Corona faces decades in prison, with a maximum sentence of 40 years on the sexual assault charge and 20 years for each obstruction count.
“Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables,” prosecutors said.
Anyone with information about this investigation is encouraged to contact their local FBI office, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov.