Arraignment for choir director is moved back

A former Laguna Niguel choir director accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage Costa Mesa girl in the 1990s will be arraigned in two weeks after his original plea date scheduled for Monday was pushed back.

Albert L. Schildknecht, 57, is accused of two felony counts of oral copulation with a person under 18 years old and one count of digital penetration of a minor after a Costa Mesa woman was interviewed by detectives last year. The woman claims that between January 1995 and January 1997, when she was between the ages of 16 and 17, she and Schildknecht had several sexual encounters.

According to the complaint, when he was 45 and 46 years old, he and the girl had several sexual encounters, including one after a lunch date at The Gypsy Den Cafe.

In 2007, the Daily Pilot reported that the woman sang in the youth choir for St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel, where Schildknecht was choir director. Soon after the woman’s accusations surfaced, he was placed on leave. He then resigned.

Schildknecht remains free on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 29.

— Joseph Serna