Tulare County Sheriff Boudreaux accused of serial sexual abuse

A former high-ranking officer of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) has filed a complaint with the state Department of Justice accusing his one-time boss, Tulare County Sheriff-Coroner Michael Boudreaux, of sexually assaulting three women, two of whom were minors at the time the alleged assaults occurred.

Two of Boudreaux’s accusers were children when the sexual abuse allegedly took place in the mid-1980s and are making their allegations public for the first time as adults. The third victim described unwanted sexual advances that allegedly took place in 2019 at Boudreaux’s family home in Springville.

The complaint includes summaries of testimony by Boudreaux’s accusers, as well as a 1991 investigative report from the Tulare County Department of Public Social Services that named Boudreaux as the suspect in a confirmed case of serial molestation involving an 11-year-old girl. According to the report, Boudreaux was 17 or 18 at the time the assaults took place.

The letter of complaint to the California Department of Justice requests an independent investigation by the state attorney general’s office. A similar complaint was also delivered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with a request for an outside investigation.

Two Victims Claim Series of Childhood Assaults by Boudreaux

Two of the alleged victims grew up in the same small community of California Hot Springs as Boudreaux and his family. Boudreaux’s father was the resident TCSO deputy for the community, as well as a deacon at the Pine Flat Christian Center. Both women’s families attended the same church, and one’s father served as its pastor.

While the series of alleged assaults against the two child victims were separated by years, both women describe periods of ongoing abuse by Boudreaux when their families were together to discuss church business or to socialize. Both women also detailed encounters with Boudreaux as adults, one as recently as this week on Monday, November 2.

The third woman whose claims are detailed in the complaint to the DOJ described Boudreaux touching her inappropriately after bringing her to his family home.

In preparing the complaint, all three of Boudreaux’s accusers were interviewed by LA-based attorney Doug Rochen, who specializes in sexual assault litigation for the DiCello Levitt lawfirm. He described the women as reliable witnesses presenting believable testimony of serial abuse.

“It sounds like Mike Boudreaux has been doing this for a bit, historically a bit,” Rochen said. “The three women I spoke with, some of them go back to when he was brand new on the force, up to recently when he was in uniform.”

Fresno Pastor Seeks More Stories of Alleged Abuse

Rochen has been involved in two prominent civil rights cases against the TCSO. The first involved TCSO deputy William Nulick, who pleaded no-contest to two felony counts of oral copulation under color of authority and two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery involving five women in 2016. The second civil rights case involved the severe beating of an unarmed man in his home in Strathmore by several TCSO deputies in 2017.

Rochen also said he believes there are other women with similar stories to tell.

“It sounds like there’s a lot of folks out there,” Rochen said. “This is just the tip of the mountain.”

Isabel Vela, a Fresno-based pastor, is also looking for women who were allegedly mistreated by TCSO personnel. Her church, Our Father’s Home, began circulating a flyer on June 11 via social media that requests “information regarding allegations of sexual misconduct” among a long list of possible misdeeds on the part of TCSO personnel. The flyer has a prominent picture of Boudreaux. It also notes the need for documentation of such allegations.

Vela said the flyer resulted in seven individuals with complaints contacting her. She is unwilling to provide specifics about the allegations until they have been adequately documented, she said.

“There are other victims who have contacted us, but they’ve been silenced,” Vela said. “There are two or three who are under the impression they will get in trouble because they’ve been forced to sign nondisclosure agreements.”

When the Valley Voice asked the TCSO office of media relations for more information about the flyer circulated by Vela’s church and the alleged victims she said had contacted her, the TCSO referred the matter to Boudreaux’s private attorney, Charles Doerksen, who contacted the Valley Voice two weeks after its original request for comment sent via email to the TCSO.

The two page response contained a single reference to allegations against his client: “… the allegations are false. …”

Vela has a copy of the 1991 investigative report that names Boudreaux as the alleged assailant in the incident of serial molestation it documents. Her attempts to share that report resulted in a cease and desist demand from the Tulare County Counsel’s Office dated May 15.

The Valley Voice has reviewed the incidents described in that 1991 report during an in-person interview with the victim it names. The Valley Voice will not reveal the women’s names at their request.

Report Details Victim’s Recollection of 1980s Abuse Cycle

In the 1991 investigative report, the victim and her family specifically name Boudreaux as her alleged attacker. She was 16 years old when the report was taken – approximately six years after the alleged molestation.

The report — entitled “Emergency Response Initial Evaluation and Termination Contacts and Documentation” — describes the Tulare County Department of Public Social Services initial investigation in Case No. 265186. It describes a long series of alleged sexual assaults on the victim, who was then a 10-year-old girl, mainly in the form of forced masturbation. It gives Boudreaux’s age as 17 or 18.

However, Boudreaux, who is 9 years older than his alleged victim, could have been as old as 19 when the assaults occurred, she said during the recent interview.

The investigation by the TCSO and the Tulare County Department of Public Social Services into the alleged molestation began on November 18, 1991, and was conducted by county social worker, Pat Onsurez, and TCSO deputy John Bennis.

The victim’s family contacted authorities after the victim’s cousin learned of the alleged assaults. The victim’s cousin told her mother, the victim’s aunt, who was a mandated reporter of such crimes due to her employment as a social worker. The victim’s aunt then contacted authorities.

The victim’s cousin shared the information with her mother, the report said, because she feared for the safety of her younger sister. Her younger sister was spending the weekend with Boudreaux and his wife, the investigation notes.

The then 16-year-old victim was unaware her aunt had contacted authorities, and the report notes her feelings of shame while speaking to the investigators. She also reported a feeling of guilt because the information was becoming public for the first time. The victim’s mother reportedly felt disturbed by the wide impact the revelation would have in the small community where both families still lived.

Families of Victim, Boudreaux Shared Close Ties

In an interview with the Valley Voice the victim describes the former relationship between her family and the Boudreaux family as extensive and intimate. She called Michael Boudreaux Sr. her “second father.” Both families attended the same church, where the victim’s father was a deacon. The children attended the same school, though at different grade levels due to the age difference.

The family would gather multiple times a month both at the church and in their homes, she said, recalling her childhood in California Hot Springs.

“Friday nights we would do prayer meetings at our house,” she said. “We got into a season of doing that, so they would come for that and there would be a lot of people. And then Saturdays or Sundays, some of those nights, we spent a lot of time at their house with all the parents.”

She described a typical social situation between the families.

“We would eat dinner,” she said. “They [the adults] would talk for hours.”

Abuse Took Place While Parents Absent

During those long periods, the children were left to themselves, with Boudreaux taking charge of the group, the victim said. The children were also sometimes allowed to stay home while their parents attended church services on Sunday nights.

“I don’t know whose idea it was, but we ended up staying at their house on Sunday nights and not going to church,” she said. “And Michael was supposed to be babysitting all of us.”

Usually, the three younger children — the victim, her brother and Bourdreaux’s brother, Chris — would be left in the living room while Boudreaux was in the bedroom he shared with his brother, she said of the arrangement. While the younger boys were watching TV or playing video games in the living room, Boudreaux would summon the victim to his bedroom, she alleged.

“Then some of the nights that I would stay there, he would call me back to his bedroom,” she said. “They had a long, dark hall, and before his parents moved, added on to their house, their room was here (indicating the hall). And then the boys shared a room with a bunk bed directly across. And there was a mirror at the end of the hall.”

She described one of the interactions with Boudreaux she can still recall clearly.

“He was very secretive. Called me back with his finger. I went. I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “And then he put me behind the door with him. And then he was looking through the crack to make sure nobody was coming. And then he had me masturbate him.”

Troublingly, she still has only partial recollections of what allegedly happened between them, or how many occurrences of alleged abuse took place. She does remember being confused and afraid after the incident she described.

“He must have ejaculated, because I remember going to the bathroom right after and wanting to wash my hands,” she said. “I was very fearful. I didn’t know what was going on.”

A Moment of Doubt or Guilt

The victim recalls with clarity two other incidents. The first was similar to the time Boudreaux allegedly had her masturbate him behind his bedroom door, with an added threat of forced oral copulation.

“I think I looked down, and he threatened me and said, ‘If you look at that, I’m going to make you eat it,’” she said.

Another incident etched into her memory also helped the victim recall how old she was when the alleged assaults took place. She remembers being prepubescent when the abuse began to escalate.

“He called me back to his bedroom. The bunk beds were right there,” she said. “The reason why I recollect that I was around 10 is because (of) body hair, you know, starting (or) whatever.”.

While the victim told investigators Boudreaux had never touched her genitalia during the times he is alleged to have forced her to masturbate him, there was an incident when he pressed his genitals to hers.

“He laid me on the lower bed and he pulled my lower pants down. And I always wore leggings, so I’m pretty sure I was wearing leggings,” she said. “But he pulled them down, and then he unbuckled, and his pants were down.”

She said Boudreaux then climbed on top of her.

“He laid on top of me, and I just remember the weight was so heavy because I was so little,” she said. “And I just remember it being really heavy. And we, you know, touched our genitals.”

She said her alleged attacker then appeared to have a sudden bout of guilt.

“He got up and was like, ‘No, we’re not going to do this,’” she said. “So I don’t know if he was thinking this is too far or if there’s somebody in the other room and they could come in at any time.”

A Second Woman’s Eerily Similar Story

A second victim also came forward to give her testimony to the Valley Voice.

The victim recalls twice seeing Boudreaux interacting with other children in ways she now considers to be possibly inappropriate. One incident involved her 14-year-old female cousin sitting in Boudreaux’s lap in an isolated room at the church they attended. The second incident involved the other woman who is now accusing Boudreaux of molesting her as a child and whose story is also detailed in the report to the state DOJ and the FBI.

The second woman who claims Boudreaux molested her and other children in her presence was two years younger than Boudreaux. She reports being sexually assaulted by him over a number of years beginning when she was between 10 and 12 years old. She also provided the names of three other children she said Boudreaux molested in her presence.

As with the other victim, the second victim’s family was close with the Boudreaux family. The second victim’s father was the pastor at the church all three families attended in California Hot Springs. Again, the children would be left to themselves while the adults socialized or discussed church business.

Like the other victim’s description of events, the second victim recalls being in the bedroom Boudreaux shared with his brother. While the two boys were on the top bunk, Boudreaux and the victim were seated out of sight below them.

“I just remember him undoing his pants and taking my hand and doing what he wanted with my hand,” she said in a recent interview. “And the TV was on. The room was dark.”

‘The Game’ or ‘Prisoner and Jail’

Many of the alleged incidents involving multiple children happened during what was generally called “The Game” or “Prisoner or Jail.” The girls, the second victim said, would be isolated with Boudreaux and forced to masturbate him. The initial assaults on her continued for about a year, then resumed later. The final incident happened when the victim was in the eighth grade.

She recalls an incident involving three girls, including herself, in a session of the Game. The incident allegedly occurred during the birthday party of a child whose family did not attend the church.

“When we were at the birthday party, there were three of us, and he had us lined up down the road,” she said. “And of course, there’s weeds, you know, growing on the side of the road. And he placed us down the road. And then he went from one girl to the next girl to the next girl.”

The incident was discovered by the parents of the children who attended the party, the victim said.

“I don’t even know how it came out,” she said. “I don’t know if it was the girl’s mom at the party. I don’t know if she told her mother. I don’t know.”

Regardless of how the information came to light, the victim’s mother was informed. Again, the victim is unsure of how her parents learned what had happened or how far the information was spread

“But that mom had to have spoken to my mom or other parents or something,” she said. “Because It, like, stopped. It stopped.”

The victim never reported the assaults because, she said, she feared her attacker and what he might do. She also feared the stigma that would follow her in the small, tight-knit community where they lived. Boudreaux, she said, never physically harmed her. His alleged assaults were all sexual in nature.

“He never hurt me,” she said. “But it was just this, like, a look. It was like, ‘You just do what I say.’”

Boudreaux Allegedly Entered Victim’s House

The second victim moved away from California Hot Springs and had no contact with Boudreaux for several years. She married, moved to Porterville and had two young children. Then in 1989 she crossed paths with Boudreaux again.

The two ran into each other at a drug store in Porterville. At the time, the victim was nursing a baby, causing her breasts to enlarge. This drew Boudreax’s attention, she said.

“He made a comment about my breasts being so big,” she said. “And I said ‘I’m nursing my daughter,’ and now I’m uncomfortable.”

The conversation continued, with Boudreaux asking where the victim and her husband lived. The victim’s husband also grew up in California Hot Springs, attending the Pine Flat Christian Center, and attending school with Chris Boudreax. The victim said she told Boudreaux only the name of the street where the couple’s home was located.

“Within a month, he shows up at my door,” she said. “I didn’t even know he worked with the department at the time, but he knocks on the door and he just comes in.”

She described Boudreaux’s behavior as erratic.

“He says, ‘I’m undercover. I’m on a drug investigation and it’s top secret,” she said. “And so he goes from the door over to the window, and the curtains were open, but he looks out like this (sideways through the lifted corner of the curtain), like he’s looking at this two story apartment complex across the street.”

She said Boudreaux then asked if the home had a back door and began looking through the home.

“He walks into this hallway, pokes his head into our bedroom, into the kids room, like he’s mapping it out,” she said. “And then walks through the kitchen, through the little laundry room to the back door. He says, ‘Is there a side gate?’”

Boudreaux then allegedly told the victim not to tell her husband he had visited.

“And he comes back in and he goes back to the front window, looks out, and he says, ‘Don’t tell (the victim’s husband) I was here,” she said.

The victim says she believes Boudreaux intended to assault her.

“I think he was looking at the map-out of the house,” she said. “That’s what I think he was doing. I think he was wanting to take advantage. So that’s what I believe.”

Victim’s Husband Confronts Boudreaux

Boudreaux, she said, gave her an unwelcome hug she did not reciprocate, then left through the back door, leaving the yard by the side gate. The victim watched as he left, noting the make of vehicle he drove: a small, white pickup truck.

“And that little white truck started showing up everywhere I went, whether I went to, I believe there was a Kmart at the time, or whether I went to the grocery store, or whether I went to the bank, wherever,” she said. “And I didn’t go places all the time. But whenever I went, that little white truck was around behind me.”

The victim finally confided in her husband at the urging of a close friend who had also seen the small white truck following the victim’s vehicle. There was also mounting fear for her safety and that of her children.

“What scared me was him stalking me when I was married,” she said. “And I had children and him following me. It was like being hunted. And the looking over your shoulder.”

When he was informed, the victim’s husband left the house, intending to confront Boudreaux at the home he shared with his wife and family. On the way to confront him, he met Boudreaux’s brother by chance, and got Boudreaux’s phone number. He called to demand an immediate in-person meeting.

Boudreaux and the victim’s husband met in a public location, where the victim’s husband confronted Boudreaux about his behavior. The victim said her husband threatened to contact Boudreaux’s superior at the TCSO and ordered him to stay away from the victim. She has had no contact with him since.

Additional Claims of Inappropriate Behavior

Although the victim remained silent about her allegations against Boudreaux for decades, she is telling her story publicly now because she believes Boudreaux is still behaving inappropriately toward women under his influence. The feeling was strongly renewed and reinforced when she read a 2025 news report regarding a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of several TCSO employees against the department and Boudreaux. Among other alleged misdeeds, the suit also claimed inappropriate sexual behavior in the TCSO chain of command.

“I saw in there that there were allegations against him from employees, …” she said. “And I’m, like, he hasn’t changed.”

Boudreaux is listed as a prime defendant in the federal civil rights lawsuit. Two plaintiffs in the case, both women, allege Boudreaux and other TCSO supervising deputies repeatedly made unwelcome sexual advances and suggestions.

The complaint to the DOJ regarding Boudreaux contains a third more recent account of alleged inappropriate behavior on his part. In 2018, the complaint alleges, he contacted a 39-year-old Springville woman to arrange a meeting at a local coffee shop. The woman assumed Boudreaux wished to discuss either the TCSO’s investigation into her sister-in-law’s death or the pending tax sale of property she owned, the complaint states.

While the woman was driving to the meeting, Boudreaux called to ask her to meet in the parking lot of a large store in Porterville. Once there, according to the account in the complaint, he told her to get in his county-issued vehicle, and then drove her to his Porterville home. After they had gone inside, the woman realized she and Boudreaux were alone.

The complaint states Boudreaux’s comments then “turned uncomfortable.” The woman alleges he pulled her onto the couch and placed his hand on her upper thigh, it continues. The woman stood up and expressed her displeasure at the behavior. Boudreaux reportedly told her “it was fine,” but also said she should not tell her husband.

The woman, however, told her husband, and the pair reported the incident to the Springville resident TCSO deputy the next day. The deputy allegedly responded that the behavior was common for Boudreaux. No further action was taken, the complaint states.

The account of the third victim’s experience, as detailed in the complaint to the state DOJ, says the unwelcome attention from Boudreaux did not stop after it was reported to the TCSO.

Boudreaux allegedly spent the weeks after the incident soliciting photographs of the third victim via her company email. When images of the emails from Boudreaux were circulated, Boudreaux found out and supposedly responded harshly.

He allegedly demanded the phone where the images of his email solicitations were saved. When he was refused access to the device, Boudreaux allegedly threatened that “a team of deputies would come to her house and seize the phone.” The third victim continued to refuse to release the phone, and a complaint against Boudreaux was filed with the TCSO.

This Week: Victim Reports Unusual Activity, Encounter

Just this week, the first alleged victim — the woman whose abuse was detailed by the Tulare County Department of Public Social Services in 1991 — reported two concerning encounters. On Friday night, October 30, a car parked in front of her residence with its motor running and lights on for two hours. The vehicle was captured by security cameras.

“It was definitely a clean, newer-looking car. I videoed it at 10:48 p.m., but my neighbor caught it at 10:30 p.m.,” she said. “It did not leave our house until almost 12:40 a.m. It was turned on the whole time. It was just odd.”

This Monday morning, November 2, the woman’s son contacted her to say that Boudreaux was parked across the street from her family business.

“This morning, he texted (that) the sheriff is out in front of our shop pulling people over and giving them tickets,” she said. “He was down by Hope School. A lot of times there is a CHP officer there who is giving out tickets to people who are going too fast. This time he was parked in a black SUV with lights on it.”

Her son had exited Highway 65 and was driving toward the family business when he recognized Boudreaux. She said her son is aware of her allegations against Boudreaux and knows him on sight.

“Mike put his finger out at him and shook his finger at him, like slow down,” she said. “I was like, is that his job description? It’s not normal for a sheriff to pull people over for speeding. It was just odd. Very odd.”

She feels there may be a connection between his presence so near her place of business and the fact she recently obtained a second copy of the county report from 1991.

Women Fear Reprisals for Speaking Out

Both women who spoke to the Valley Voice about their experiences with Boudreaux said they remain concerned. The alleged victim whose father was the church pastor and whose husband eventually confronted Boudreaux feels especially vulnerable.

Because their residence is outside any city limits, calls for help go to the TCSO.

“If I need to call the sheriff to come to my house, can I call a sheriff?” she said. “I live in the county. I wouldn’t dare call the sheriff’s department.”

She also feels motivated to tell her story because she believes Boudreaux is still dangerous.

“I don’t want there to be more victims. And it doesn’t even matter the age, you know, whether it’s an employee, whether it’s a teenager or younger,” she said. “He’s supposed to be representing the law and protecting people and (overseeing) people that are supposed to protect people, not covering up for his dirtiness.”

The other alleged victim who spoke with the Valley Voice expressed a similar sense of unease.

“I do have concerns of, you know, being around town and being followed or anything,” she said.

Boudreaux, she said, has in the past approached her daughter and granddaughter at public events.

“He walked up to my daughter and granddaughter and said hi,” she said. “The only way he’d know who they are is if he looked at my social media pages.”

Hearing the stories of other women’s allegedly inappropriate contacts with Boudreaux, she said, prompted her to get a copy of the 1991 report on her experience from the county. It was not long after that other allegations from TCSO employees against Boudreaux were in the press.

“And then within what? A half a year later? It all started coming out about sexual harassment within the department itself,” she said. “And so I was like, he needs to be stopped.”