OC Jailhouse Cook Charged With Assaulting Female Inmates

SANTA ANA (AP) — A jailhouse cook has been charged with sexually assaulting two female inmates he supervised in the Orange County Jail.

Prosecutors say 54-year-old James Arroyo of Fullerton, a Sheriff's Department employee, is charged with misdemeanor counts of sexual battery, assault and being a jail employee engaging in sex with a confined consenting adult.

If convicted, Arroyo could be sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Arroyo is free on $25,000 bail. The Orange County district attorney's office says he will be arraigned March 14 in Santa Ana.

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