Moreno Valley School Board Member Arrested In Shooting Case

A Moreno Valley school board member suspected of shooting at two men during a confrontation outside his home was behind bars today.

Mike Luis Rios, 41, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of attempted murder and witness intimidation in connection with an alleged attack in the 27500 block of Palm Shadow Drive.

According to Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Walter Mendez, deputies were summoned to Rios’ property around 2:20 a.m. Monday to investigate reports of shots fired.

Rios told investigators that he had been followed home by two men with whom he had argued at a nightclub earlier in the evening, leading to another exchange outside his residence, Mendez said.

“During the confrontation, Mr. Rios alleged one of the male subjects brandished a weapon and fired at him,” the sergeant said. “The suspects fled the area in a compact vehicle.”

He said deputies couldn’t locate the alleged assailants during a search, but during a follow-up investigation, detectives found the men and questioned them and other witnesses, whose stories contradicted Rios’ account.

After interviewing the Moreno Valley man a second time, detectives determined there was sufficient evidence to arrest him, according to Mendez.

Rios is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

He was elected to the Moreno Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees in November 2010, campaigning as “the people’s candidate” and receiving the most votes in an eight-way race.

School board officials are expected to discuss their colleague’s arrest and what to do about his absence in closed session before Tuesday’s public meeting.

Rios gained attention in July 2010 when he claimed he was a member of the city council and purported to represent the city in statements to the media immediately after the abduction and murder of 17-year-old Norma Angelica Lopez.

More recently, Rios went public about an ongoing legal dispute with federal officials over his wife’s immigration status.

Dora Landaverde-Torres, 39, was arrested in September by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during Operation Cross Check, which involved a series of sweeps nationwide to nab illegal migrants with criminal records. Nearly 3,000 people were taken into custody.

According to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice, the El Salvadoran native was arrested based on a felony drug conviction in the late 1990s.

According to reports, Landaverde-Torres was jailed for nine months in Orange County after being convicted of transporting marijuana for sale.

She and Rios have two small children.

Lawyers for Landaverde-Torres were challenging the government’s deportation order.

Kice couldn’t confirm whether the woman was still in federal custody.