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Former East Palo Alto city employee Rafael Prado pleaded guilty on July 28 to three felonies for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy and possessing child sexual abuse material under a plea deal carrying a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison.
Prado — a 29-year-old Redwood City resident — met the boy in the East Palo Alto library between late 2022 and sometime in 2023, repeatedly supplying him with drugs and sexually assaulting him, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.
While he initially faced a maximum of 12 years in prison, Prado’s charges were reduced when investigators confirmed that the boy was 14 at the time of the assaults, not 13 as initially suspected. Lewd acts with a child under 14 are considered a more serious offense under California law. After the charges against Prado were revised to five counts of lewd acts with a child aged 14 to 15 and one count of possessing child sexual abuse material, he faced a maximum sentence of five years and three months in prison.
Judge Michael Wendler agreed to dismiss three of the lewd act counts in exchange for Prado pleading guilty to the other two, plus possession of child sexual abuse material. Prado also admitted to an enhancement for aggravated circumstances.
Prosecutors sought a maximum of four years and four months in prison but Wendler agreed to no more than three years and eight months and will consider a report from the court’s probation department before determining the final sentence.
Since a no contest plea is the legal equivalent of a guilty plea, defendants rarely actually plead guilty, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
“That’s probably a one-in-a-thousand occurrence,” Wagstaffe said. “Because it’s effectively the same thing, some defense attorneys instruct their clients to always plead no contest — it’s sort of the custom throughout the state.”
Prado’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Prado, who is sometimes referred to as Rafael Prado Caballero, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 16 at the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.
Councilmember’s character reference
After this news organization‘s review of court documents turned up a character reference by East Palo Alto Councilmember Carlos Romero in support of an unsuccessful motion seeking Prado’s release while he awaited trial, Romero faced criticism and calls for his resignation by Mayor Webster Lincoln and Councilmember Mark Dinan.
“It is an absurd request to ask for my resignation because I choose to believe people are considered innocent until proven guilty,” Romero said in a statement at the time.
Romero said he submitted the reference in his personal capacity, and described only his interactions with Prado, but used letterhead with the city seal that said the “Office of Councilmember Carlos Romero.”
“In our judicial system, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Romero told this news organization at the time. “My character reference for Mr. Prado was based on observed behavior during my interactions with him at numerous COVID vaccination outreach efforts in East Palo Alto from 2021 to 2022.”
Romero did not respond to a request for comment about Prado’s guilty plea.
City withholds employment records
Prado, who has been in custody since his arrest on June 17, 2025, was a part-time, on-call employee for the city of East Palo Alto from 2022 to 2025.
The exact nature of Prado’s employment is unknown because the city would not release several documents relating to his assignments in response to a Public Records Act request from this news organization.
The city said it withheld or redacted records for several reasons, including to prevent unwarranted invasions of privacy and when the public interest favored nondisclosure, but would not provide clarification on how the reasons apply to this request.
