The county emergency medical services specialist accused of sexually assaulting two teenage boys between 2002 and 2005 was a local Boy Scouts troop leader until Friday and recently advised teenage members of the Career Explorer Program at the Hollister Fire Department.
The suspect in the case, Joseph Alvarado, was an assistant scout master for a Boy Scouts troop in Hollister from 2010 until Friday when the organization dropped him. This past summer, he also worked with the relatively new Career Explorer Program at the Hollister Fire Department.
A regional Boy Scouts spokeswoman, Margaret Caldwell, confirmed that Alvarado was an assistant scout master but she was unsure of the troop number locally. She said he had been removed from the post as of Friday morning after the organization found out about the arrest late Thursday. She confirmed Alvarado had been associated with the Boy Scouts since 2010 and had two children involved in the organization. Boy Scouts generally range from ages 11 to 18, said Caldwell, director of development for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council.
As for the explorer program at the fire department, Alvarado advised 22 participants ages 14 to 21 this past summer. Alvarado’s association with county EMS and the Boy Scouts led him to the advisement role with the explorers, Fire Chief Mike O’Connor said.
O’Connor said there were always three or four advisers, along with firefighters, present whenever Alvarado was around the explorer teens.
San Benito County Sheriff’s detectives on Thursday morning arrested Alvarado, 42, on allegations of sexually assaulting two teenage boys between 2002 and 2005. He has been booked at the county jail while charged on suspicion of multiple felonies, according to a sheriff’s office statement. The arrest occurred in the 1000 block of El Toro Drive.
His bail Thursday was set at $1.75 million, according to the district attorney, Candice Hooper.
One victim was age 15 at the time of the suspected incident. The other was between 15 and 17 at the time.
One of the victims came forward within the past week, said sheriff’s office Capt. Eric Taylor. The first suspected victim implicated a second suspected victim, who corroborated the first person’s story, the captain said.
The sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at the suspect’s home and obtained what Taylor described as “video and photographic evidence” in the case. Assisting the sheriff’s office in the investigation were San Jose police and the FBI. The sheriff’s office urges other potential victims to step forward and call the agency at (831) 636-4080 or the anonymous tip line at 636-4080.
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