Charges mount against accused sexual predator

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office filed two additional charges of lewd and lascivious acts against 55-year-old Bruce Nelson, who on July 30 was charged with five counts of the same charge.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Joyce Dudley said the two new counts were filed after a second victim was identified. Both victims were, or are patients at Solutions, a residential treatment center for patients suffering from brain injuries.

Nelson was an employee at Solutions from June 2002 to July 2007, according to a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department press release issued at the time of Nelson’s arrest.
Nelson has pleaded innocent to the initial five chargers and is free after posting $500,000 bail.
Dudley said Nelson will have to answer to the two additional chargers at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 26, where she plans to ask a judge for Nelson’s bail to be raised to $1 million.
If Nelson is found guilty, Dudley said each count could carry a maximum sentence of eight years behind bars. However, two enhancements, one alleging Nelson entered the victims’ rooms with the intent of committing a felony, and another for committing the assaults on more than one victim, combined with the seven additional charges, could carry a life sentence.