A 24-year-old man who signed a plea agreement proposing probation and no sex-offender registration in a child sexual abuse case is now jailed without bail amid new allegations. Andrew Ruiz was initially charged with lewd acts upon a child; he now faces new charges. The alleged renewed abuse took place at a party two weeks before he signed the agreement. The girl's mother reported that Ruiz contacted the girl in violation of a restraining order, while prosecutors allege he sexually abused her again.
A Deal Proposed to Drop the Most Serious Counts
According to The Mercury News, Ruiz was initially charged by Alameda County prosecutors with lewd acts upon a child. New charges, based on alleged conduct from 2025 onward, include sodomy and statutory rape of a minor, possessing child pornography, contacting a minor for sex, sending harmful material to a minor, and misdemeanor disobedience of a court order. He was accused of committing lewd acts upon the girl multiple times beginning when she was 12. He had met the girl through one of her friends and later texted her, the outlet reports.
Ruiz signed a plea agreement under which he would plead no contest only to statutory rape in exchange for charges of committing a lewd act upon a child and possessing child pornography being dropped. The proposed terms, which still required judicial approval, called for two years of probation, no prison time, credit for the single day he spent in jail after his arrest, and no requirement that he register as a sex offender, per the Mercury News report.
New Allegations Surface Before Sentencing
The girl testified that Ruiz had warned her not to come forward. After being released on $110,000 bail, Ruiz contacted the girl as early as February 2025, and the girl told authorities she and Ruiz began talking nearly daily soon after she testified against him in March. Court records cited by the Mercury News say the girl's mother reported within a week of Ruiz signing the plea agreement that he had violated his restraining order by contacting the girl both online and in person.
Ruiz and the girl allegedly met again at a party in late August, where prosecutors allege he sexually abused her once more — an incident that reportedly occurred just two weeks before he signed the plea deal. Police said the girl's mother later discovered recent nude picture exchanges between Ruiz and the girl on Instagram, which led to the new allegations surfacing. The girl's mother had originally reported the alleged abuse to police in April 2024.
Jailed Without Bail as New Case Proceeds
Court records show Ruiz now remains jailed without bail pending the proceedings. A judge has postponed his formal sentencing hearing in the original case until at least December 9, and Ruiz is due to enter a plea in the new sex abuse case on December 7, the Mercury News reports.
Hoodline previously reported on a comparable case involving a 24-year-old San Mateo man identified as Andrade, who received two years of probation after pleading no contest to felony accessory and misdemeanor child abuse charges tied to the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old Oakland girl. In that case, the agreement similarly dropped more serious statutory rape and child pornography charges, and the court ordered Andrade to stay away from the girl. The underlying incident in that case occurred in November 2022, when Andrade was arrested around 1 a.m. in a parked car with the victim.
