A former San Francisco firefighter accused of using his firefighter’s badge to lure a woman into his car, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on multiple felony counts.
Horacio Candia, 49, is alleged to have met the 20-year-old woman on Aug. 22, 2008, in downtown San Francisco, where police and prosecutors say he told her he was a firefighter, showed her his badge, and offered her a meal and conversation.
Candia then allegedly drove the woman to 16th and Carolina streets in the Potrero Hill neighborhood and assaulted her inside the car.
Candia eventually let the woman go, according to prosecutors, and she immediately reported the incident to police. He was arrested several days later.
At his preliminary hearing Wednesday, a San Francisco Superior Court judge held Candia to answer on three counts of forced oral copulation and counts of sexual battery, making criminal threats and false imprisonment, according to the district attorney’s office.
Out of custody on $500,000 bail, Candia is scheduled to return to court Oct. 14 for arraignment and plea entry in superior court and the possible setting of a trial date.
Candia worked for the San Francisco Fire Department from 1992 until early 2001, and was promoted from firefighter to chief’s aide before being fired for violating the department’s substance abuse policy by refusing a drug/alcohol test, according to the department.
