Man arrested in molestation to face charges

A German man accused of molesting an 8-year-old girl at a Newport Beach aquatic park was being brought to Orange County to face charges, authorities said Tuesday.

Michael Roeder, a 27-year-old resident of Augsburg, Germany, was staying at the Newport Dunes on Aug. 23 while on a 17-day road trip through Nevada and California, authorities said.

Roeder was arrested Saturday while returning a rented RV in Oakland. Roeder was being held on $250,000 bail at the Alameda County Jail and will be taken to the Orange County Jail, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford said.

An Orange County district attorney’s office spokeswoman said no charges had been filed against Roeder as of Tuesday afternoon.

Newport Beach Police found hundreds of pornographic pictures on a laptop computer inside the RV Roeder rented, Hartford said.

Detectives are concerned that Roeder may have been touring family RV parks with the intent to commit lewd acts against children, so they are asking the public to report any incidents.

“Usually these pedophiles, they don’t have one victim,” Hartford said.

The girl, while vacationing with her family at the Newport Dunes Resort, told her parents that a man touched her while she was playing with a friend in the water, police said. Newport Dunes security called police, but the man and his two traveling companions left before police arrived.

Roeder was traveling with his sister and longtime girlfriend, neither of whom are suspects in any investigation, Hartford said.

In addition to the laptop, police also confiscated a video camera and several digital photo cards. Police are still investigating whether the photo cards or camera contained any pornographic images. The pictures found on the laptop were commercial child pornography downloaded from websites, Hartford said.

Newport Dunes general manager Andrew Theodorou said he was relieved Roeder was arrested and said it resulted from teamwork between the police department and Newport Dunes security.

“We are a family-oriented resort, and typically we don’t have these crimes,” Theodorou said.

Security contacted police right away and provided them with information about Roeder and the RV, Theodorou said.