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UPDATE: Social media influencer Ray Diaz has pleaded not guilty to having sex with a teenage girl as well as assaulting her and a young woman in separate incidents over the past year, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Raymundo Diaz was charged with two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, one count each of oral copulation of a person under the age of 18, sodomy of a person under 18, injuring a cohabitant, and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. He also faces three misdemeanor counts of battery on a girlfriend.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges last Wednesday and is scheduled to return to court today for a bail review hearing in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Bail has been set at $500,000.
Deputy District Attorney Theodore Swanson of the Sex Crimes Division is prosecuting the case.
Diaz met his alleged teenage victim last year and began making online videos with her. Prosecutors claim Diaz engaged in sexual activity with the girl, who was 16 years old at the time, and physically assaulted her on at least three separate occasions.
Diaz also allegedly attacked a 19-year-old woman who lived with him and tried to prevent her from calling police. If convicted as charged, Diaz faces up to 10 years and four months in state prison.
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.
EARLIER: Social media star Ray Diaz is being held on $500,000 bail at a Los Angeles Police Department facility after he was arrested Friday on suspicion of sexual assault.
LAPD detectives took Diaz into custody at 5 a.m. in San Diego, with assistance from San Diego police, Los Angeles police announced Friday night on Twitter.
According to Los Angeles County inmate booking records, Diaz — real name Raymundo Diaz — was turned over to the LAPD jail division at 9:20 p.m. As of Saturday afternoon, he remained in custody.
Diaz is a self-described entrepreneur, content creator and actor, with more than 3 million followers on Instagram, and 304,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. His acting credits include the Hulu series East Lost High, and the George Lopez comedy, Lopez, according to his IMDb page.
Police began investigating Diaz after a clip that detailed alleged abuse of an underage girl was uploaded to social media on July 5.
According to Buzzfeednews, the clip was “posted to 17-year-old Angelica Salek’s Instagram account featuring a man alleged to be Diaz.” While the clip was deleted, it was shared across social media, prompting calls for police action.
The alleged victim later said in an interview with “DramaAlert” YouTube channel host Daniel “Keemstar” Keem that she had been dating Diaz for about a year. She alleged she was emotionally and physically abused by the social media star. Diaz was also interviewed by “DramaAlert” and claimed the July 5 video depicted an acting exercise and not an actual assault.
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