Berkeley man charged with sexual abuse of girl for years
Javier Castellanos-Herrera was charged with eight felonies, including the continuous sexual abuse of a child.
A Berkeley man has been charged with felony sex crimes dating back nearly a decade in connection with a teenage girl who is related to him by marriage, court papers show.
Javier Castellanos-Herrera was charged Monday by the Alameda County district attorney's office with eight felonies, including the continuous sexual abuse of a child as well as multiple sex crimes alleged to have taken place when the girl was younger than 10 years old.
The Berkeley Police Department began investigating the case Friday after the girl, who attends a Berkeley high school, disclosed the ongoing sexual assault to a counselor, according to court records.
Read more about sex crimes in Berkeley.
The girl said the man had raped her for years while she was in grade school, police wrote, in addition to other forms of serious sexual abuse.
The Scanner is not publishing the exact relationship between the two out of concern for the girl's privacy and due to the nature of the charges.
Javier Castellanos-Herrera. BPD
Police arrested 44-year-old Castellanos-Herrera on Friday night.
As of Tuesday, he remained in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, according to booking records online.
Some of the charges filed against him relate to incidents alleged to have taken place from 2015 through 2018, while other charges cover alleged abuse from 2018 through 2020.
Castellanos-Herrera was scheduled for arraignment Tuesday morning. Neither his bail nor his next court date was listed as of publication time.
The Berkeley Police Department has received 33 felony sexual assault reports involving adults this year and 15 sex crime reports involving juveniles, according to department data.
