RIVERSIDE — A Moreno Valley Unified school board member was sentenced to 14 years, four months in prison on Friday for nearly two dozen convictions including pimping and pandering.
Mike Rios, 42, was found guilty back in February of 23 of 26 felonies, including a dozen counts of pimping, six counts of insurance fraud and five counts of pandering.
Jurors found him not guilty of one rape, hung on another count of rape and a pandering charge.
The judge in the case dismissed another nine counts of pandering before the case went to the jury.
The prosecution had been seeking a sentence of 24 years and six months, while the defense had sought four years of probation.
Prosecutors alleged that Rios, a member of the Moreno Valley School Board since 2010, ran a prostitution ring out of his home.
It is alleged that three adult women worked for him as prostitutes and that he attempted to recruit another adult woman and two minors.
Rios offered one young underage girl use of his Hummer if she would work for him as a prostitute.
He met another juvenile through an Internet advertisement she placed for prostitution, prosecutors said. He again offered her use of a car and his house if she worked for him.
During the trial, a young woman testified that Rios approached her on the street with a school district business card in his hand and a business proposition “to gather girls and sell them.”
The young woman, identified in court only as Valery, said that she and others worked as prostitutes for Rios, and also helped recruit other young women for him.
“He told me we had to get the best-looking girls so we could get more money for them,” Valery testified.
Prosecutors say Rios recruited women, took provocative photos of them in his home and posted the photos in online advertisements.
He allegedly established a cellphone number solely for the prostitution work, drove the women to various locations to have sex and split the money they earned.
Rios’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael J. Micallef, told jurors Rios ran a business involving women stripping, dancing and performing for money but that it “had nothing to do with sex.”
The women were free to do whatever they wanted “to satisfy their greed,” and what they did besides stripping and dancing “wasn’t necessarily known to Mr. Rios,” Micallef said.
Now that he has been sentenced, Rios is officially removed from the school board, and the school district can begin the process of replacing him.
Rios had refused to step down from his position, and even continued to attend school board meeting until he was placed in custody on Feb. 8.
Rios still faces a separate trial on attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting at two men who followed him home after they got into an argument at a bar in February 2012.
A trial readiness hearing in the shooting case is set for April 12. Rios has pleaded not guilty.
The investigation into the shooting is what led authorities to information that brought about the pimping, pandering and insurance fraud case.
16 Comments to “IE School Board Member Gets 14 Years for Pimping”
February 8, 2013 at 9:09 PM
How do you scare the s##t out of a cop? Just say CHRISTOPHER DORNER!!!!!!!!!!LMAO
February 8, 2013 at 9:52 PM
Yeah the cops are shooting little old lady paper carriers they're so frightened. Just like the movie Rambo.
February 8, 2013 at 10:43 PM
What the f*** does that mean
February 9, 2013 at 1:51 AM
Prostitution should be legal and taxed. This is rediculous.
February 9, 2013 at 6:40 AM
Poetic justice he is going to be sentenced on international women's day
February 9, 2013 at 2:48 PM
…but he looks like such a nice man…
February 9, 2013 at 4:18 PM
Jesus Christ will always know the truth.
ENJOY !!!
February 9, 2013 at 6:12 PM
WTH is wrong with you people? Regardless of if you think prostitution should be legal at this point and time it isn't. Do you think its right that he used his position with the schoool board or the appeal of using his cars to get these young women even minors to be or become prostitutes? And 9 counts of pandering weren't even brought to this trail. What about the insurance fraud are you fine with him submitting false claims? Do you think its right that the rest of us should have a difficult time submitting claims just because others chose to try and fraud the system?
February 9, 2013 at 11:20 PM
Stupid can.
March 8, 2013 at 10:53 AM
Me think that castration is in order in order to see that he doesn't do this again in 14 year or so
March 8, 2013 at 1:21 PM
Adios Amigo!
March 8, 2013 at 2:51 PM
Just another low life who got off easy.
March 8, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Like you. Look at your score.
March 9, 2013 at 4:32 AM
Yes you're in the negative and he is in the positive.
March 8, 2013 at 4:07 PM
prison
March 9, 2013 at 4:31 AM
And deportation.