SANTA ANA — A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to groping four women along Santiago Creek Trail in Orange.

Saul Montiel-Tejada of Orange grabbed a woman’s buttocks while she was walking in the 4700 block of East Walnut Avenue about 7:40 p.m. Aug. 12, 2020, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. The victim called police and he was arrested nearby, prosecutors said.

Montiel-Tejada also grabbed a woman from behind on Aug. 9, 2020, on North Tustin Avenue near Cambridge Street. That woman managed to wriggle free and the assailant fled on a bicycle, prosecutors said.

Montiel-Tejada also groped a woman’s buttocks about 6:35 p.m. Aug. 2, 2020, in Grijalva Park, prosecutors said.

Montiel-Tejada also grabbed a woman from behind on July 25, 2020, about 4:10 p.m. and dragged her into an alcove on Santiago Creek Trail near Tustin Street and La Veta Avenue before she managed to get free, prompting him to flee, prosecutors said.

Montiel-Tejada pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, two counts of assault with the intent to commit a sex assault and two counts of sexual battery by restraint, all felonies, along with two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

Montiel-Tejada is scheduled to be sentenced July 8.

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