A Santa Maria Superior Court preliminary hearing has been delayed for a Buellton man accused of illegal sexual contact with several boys while working as a yearbook consultant.
Gregory Scott Ray, 54, has been charged with multiple crimes alleging at least a dozen victims.
Ray, who was described as a yearbook consultant and salesman based in Central California, was taken into custody in April 2019 after detectives served a search warrant.
As part of his job, he traveled to many other counties within California while employed as an independent contractor and sales consultant for Friesens LLC, a yearbook publishing company.
He assisted with yearbook consulting at many school campuses in the state, from San Jose to Los Angeles County, and may have attended yearbook camps and conferences.
That led Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department investigators to suspect there were victims beyond the Santa Ynez Valley.
The latest criminal complaint includes 34 charges alleging acts involving 12 victims.
The preliminary hearing had been scheduled for later this month.
However, attorneys vacated the July 29 date, and agreed to return Aug. 20 to discuss setting a new date for the preliminary hearing.
Additionally, Ray has been assigned a new attorney, Michael Scott, since the Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office recently declared a conflict in the case.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Fabiana Fede is leading the prosecution team.
In a related case, a Los Angeles man will make his first court appearance Aug. 26 for arraignment on oral copulation with a person under 16 years old and sodomy with a person under 16 years old, allegedly in 2015.
Vicente Lopez Ceballos, 25, surrendered to law enforcement officers last month.
The allegations against him arose while detectives investigated the case against Ray.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.