SAN FERNANDO - Five new charges involving three new victims have been filed against a 19-year-old Valencia man arrested for a series of sex offenses in the Santa Clarita Valley, a district attorney's spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Michael Downs now faces 34 charges involving 17 victims and could be sentenced to life if convicted on all counts, Deputy District Attorney Kareen O'Brien said.
"In light of the number of counts against him, he faces multiple 15-year-to-life sentences," O'Brien said. "He's facing life in prison with the possibility of parole."
Downs was arrested in mid-December after some local girls came forward and said he had performed sexual acts with them, investigators said.
All victims are Santa Clarita Valley residents, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials have said.
Downs reportedly lured them through social media and by socializing with girls younger then himself, case investigators have said.
Downs appeared in San Fernando Superior Court on Wednesday for his arraignment just before 10 a.m. wearing a blue jail uniform over a white long-sleeved undershirt.
County public defender Ralf Jacobsen requested a continuance of Downs' arraignment due to the additional counts and the naming of three additional witnesses, Jacobsen said.
"The people objected," she said. "We wanted him arraigned today."
Commissioner Martin R. Gladstein overruled the objection due to the number of charges against Downs, ordering the arraignment to continue Feb. 6.
Gladstein also ordered Downs not to attempt to contact witnesses in any way.
When Gladstein asked Downs if he understood the instructions, Downs replied with a quiet, "Yes, sir."
Downs has been charged with numerous counts of lewd acts on a child, including multiple charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation of a person under 18 and sexual penetration by a foreign object, O'Brien said.
O'Brien wouldn't comment on the District Attorney's hoped-for outcome of the case except to say: "The county wants to see justice served."
Downs was booked Dec. 15 after a week-long investigation. By Dec. 19, 29 charges of sex involving a minor had been filed against him.
He's being held in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles on $1.8 million bail.
Jacobsen was unavailable for comment today due to court appearances, a county clerk said.