LOS ANGELES—After four consecutive delays, the coronavirus pandemic has led to yet another new date for the pre-trial hearing in the sexual abuse cases against Mercedes Carerra and her husband Daemon Cins, according to documents on file with the San Bernardino County Superior Court. The hearing had been set for Friday of this week, May 1.
But according to the court documents, the new date is set for June 26, at the Superior Court’s Rancho Cucamonga district before Judge Katrina West. The county’s courts have been closed except for emergency matters since March 17.
The courts had been scheduled to remain closed at least until April 30. The May 1 date for the Carrera and Cins pre-trial hearing had been set at a court appearance by the pair on February 14, but the state of emergency in California due to the coronavirus crisis has upended most scheduled court proceedings.
Carrera is being held at San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. At least as of April 12, no coronavirus cases had been reported in that facility, according to The San Bernardino Sun. One case had been reported at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where Carrera was initially held, finally moving in October of last year.
Cins is reportedly held in Adelanto Detention Center, another San Bernardino County location that is also used as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. According to a report by The Orange County Register, a federal judge recently ruled that some of the ICE detainees must be released to ease overcrowding there that prevents social distancing measures during the pandemic.
Carrera and Cins were arrested on February 1, 2019, and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse against a nine-year-old girl who Carrera has since acknowledged to be her daughter. Both have denied the charges and entered pleas of not guilty.
