
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A 29-year-old Middletown man who a jury found guilty last month of committing sex crimes now faces as many as 15 additional charges alleging crimes against children under the age of 14.
Daniel Laine Wood is the focus of the new charges, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
On March 30, Wood was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure and annoying or molesting a child, as Lake County News has reported.
That case related to an August 2010 incident in Middletown, in which Wood reportedly exposed his genitals to two 12-year-old girls.
Since Wood's arrest in December for the August 2010 incident, sex crimes detectives with the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit continued to investigate Wood and have developed new information on cases alleging that he had committed criminal acts on several young girls between 2002 and 2003, Bauman said.
The allegations, according to Bauman, relate to crimes that reportedly occurred in or around Wood’s home in Anderson Springs and involve three female victims who were either 8 or 9 years of age at the time.
Last Friday, April 15, a complaint was submitted by sheriff’s sex crimes detectives alleging 15 new felony violations of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 years against Wood, Bauman said.
Bauman said Lake County Superior Court Judge Stephen Hedstrom signed a warrant on Monday, April 18, charging Wood with the new allegations. Wood subsequently was booked on the new charges at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Bauman said sheriff’s detectives sought and acquired a bail enhancement on Wood, who remains in the custody of the sheriff with a $250,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges on April 24.
As a result of his March 30 conviction, Wood is already required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Bauman said.
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