A former Riverside city official remains jailed on Thursday, Jan. 16, after a bail hearing was postponed.
Christopher Gary Tilden, who was arrested on Oct. 24, is being held in lieu of $2 million bail at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning. Tilden’s attorney, Paul Grech, has filed a motion asking a judge to release Tilden on his own recognizance or reduce the bail to $350,000.
The judge in Superior Court in Riverside was scheduled to hear the motion Wednesday, but Grech requested that it be continued to March 5.
Tilden has pleaded not guilty to three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 years old, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of indecent exposure. He is accused of abusing young girls at sleepovers.
His wife, Katrina Frances Tilden, 43, has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of accessory to help a suspect avoid arrest. She is out of custody after posting $35,000 bail.
Christopher Tilden, 46, was the deputy chief innovation officer for the city. The city no longer employs him, said Phil Pitchford, a city spokesman.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation on Sept. 4 after someone reported to the county Children’s Services Division that a 9-year-old had been abused, according to a declaration written by an investigator to increase bail to $2 million from $500,000.
Another alleged victim told a 19-year-old relative that Tilden’s behavior, where girls would wake up to find a sticky substance in their hair or on their faces, had been going on “for a few years,” the document said. A third alleged victim told investigators that every time she would sleep over, Tilden would squeeze her thigh and lift her shirt to view her body.
The investigator seeking the increased bail said the Tilden adults were initially uncooperative with the Children’s Services caseworker and would not allow the children to be interviewed. Two weeks later, the deputy wrote, Katrina Tilden said she would allow the children to be questioned but only if she were present.
The investigator said Christopher Tilden made about $260,000 annually and had the “financial means to bail out and potentially cause additional harm to the children or dissuade additional victims that have yet to come forward.”
Grech wrote in his motion that Tilden has established roots in the city, has no criminal record and has made no attempt to flee or dissuade any witnesses. Additionally, Grech said, Tilden is not accused of a violent act or sexual penetration.
