Mauricio Tapia, the 26-year-old Oxnard musician behind the band Los Retros, was charged Monday in Ventura County Superior Court with four felony counts of unlawful acts with a child under the age of 10.
Prosecutors also filed special allegations against Tapia, including that the victim was vulnerable and that he used a position of trust to carry out the alleged abuse.
Tapia has not entered a plea. A judge set his bail at $3 million. His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 22.
The charges landed days before Los Retros was set to play the Stones Throw 30 music festival in Los Angeles on Friday. The festival organizer pulled the band from the lineup, citing “unforeseen circumstances.”
Los Retros, which Tapia founded in 2016, performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April and built a following of more than 2.7 million monthly Spotify listeners. The band’s song “Someone to Spend Time With” has racked up more than 271 million streams.
Stones Throw Records, the band’s label, announced earlier this week it was severing ties with Tapia entirely.
“Yesterday we learned of extremely serious and disturbing allegations against Mauri Tapia, professionally known as Los Retros,” the label said in a statement. “We had previously announced the cancellation of his scheduled performance at Stones Throw 30 before we were aware of these circumstances. In light of this information, we are taking steps to disassociate ourselves from Tapia and his work. We take these allegations extremely seriously and will continue to assess the situation as more information becomes available.”
The case remains pending in Ventura County, where Tapia is being held ahead of his Oct. 22 hearing.
