Accused child molester ordered back to court

A Cathedral City man accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy who lived with him and showing him pornographic videos appeared in court today and was ordered to return in October for a settlement conference.
David Hadley Pio, 53, is charged with one count of committing more than three lewd acts with a child under 14, two counts of a lewd act with a child under 14 and one count of possession of material of a minor in a sex act, all felonies. Pio is due back in court Oct. 24.
Cathedral City police Officer Kelly Nava wrote in a declaration in support of a search warrant that a sister of one of Pio’s friends let her three sons live with Pio at different times during 2010 for financial reasons and so they could have a father figure. The woman said one of her sons admitted that Pio had been touching him inappropriately since he was 13. Pio allegedly took showers with the boy, masturbated himself and the boy, and made the boy touch his privates, Nava wrote in the court document.
“He would tell (the boy) that he was handsome and that he loved him,” the declaration stated.
Nava wrote that the boy said there were “so many incidents of touching he couldn’t give it a number. He said it occurred `almost every day.”‘
Nava wrote that Pio allegedly showed the boy pornographic videos on two occasions, and the boy walked in on Pio watching pornography “numerous” times. The videos involved children as young as 8, Nava wrote.
Detectives served a search warrant at Pio’s home in July and found pornographic images and videos involving minors on computers and media storage, according to police. Pio was arrested July 17.
In 1994, Pio was arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct, penetration with
a foreign object and forced sodomy with a person under 14. The case was later
dismissed, according to Nava’s declaration.
Pio was being held at the county jail in Indio in lieu of $1 million bail.