Accused pleads not guilty to sex-with-minor charge with teen found dead

Javonn Allen pleaded not guilty this morning to a charge of ‘unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor’ with respect to Victorria Moran-Hidalgo – the 16-year-old girl whose unresponsive body was found on a SOMA street in 2022.

Allen, 29, was previously suspected by prosecutors of involvement in the teenage runaway’s death. Her partially-dressed body was left on a sidewalk where she was discovered at 6:30am on February 18, 2022. There is evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.

He appeared today in Department 10 of San Francisco Superior Court to be arraigned on this and other charges, including parole violations.

A defense motion to recuse the entire San Francisco District Attorney’s office from the case was denied. Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho told the court that assistant district attorney Armando Miranda – who used to represent Allen while working as a public defender – was “working in the shadows” against her client.

“His former counsel is prosecuting him on the very case he defended him,” Camacho complained with respect to Miranda. “He is being treated materially differently from any other defendant.”

Judge Victor Hwang denied the motion, saying that he did not see any evidence of prejudice that would require recusal of the District Attorney’s office. He did direct that Miranda was to be “barred from any future participation” in the case.

He denied a bail application without prejudice.

Allen will next appear on May 30 in Department 20 before Judge Loretta Giorgi to set a preliminary hearing date. He will later appear before Judge Linda Colfax on June 9 with respect to two parole violation matters. Another misdemeanor charge will be next dealt with in Department 17 on June 8.

Camacho also announced that her client intended to seek relief under the Racial Justice Act – specifically alleging that the District Attorney’s office seeks longer detention for African American men, over others, in 261.5pc (unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor) cases.

Allen first came to the at­ten­tion of po­lice in 2015 when ar­rested for at­tempt­ing to kid­nap school­girls at An­ti­och’s Deer Val­ley High School  – man­han­dling one stu­dent and at­tempt­ing to force her in to his car.

In the years since he has been ar­rested for crimes in­clud­ing forcible rape, dis­charg­ing a firearm and child en­dan­ger­ment. In Feb­ru­ary 2023 he was ar­rested for spousal bat­tery and pa­role vi­o­la­tions, ap­pear­ing in Su­pe­rior Court that month in De­part­ment 18 (‘Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Court’).

It emerged earlier this month that his current charge related to Ms Moran-Hidalgo and that he was previously the focus of a homicide investigation in connection with her death.

Update May 30: Allen did not appear in court this morning to the surprise of Judge Loretta Giorgi (“his appearance is waived, I guess”). A preliminary hearing was set for June 7. “I will be making an OR [release on own recognizance] motion on that day,” Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho told the court.

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