OAKLAND—A 28-year-old Oakland resident, María Figueroa, had been investigated by the Daly City Police Department for the sexual abuse of a female child about five or six years old, who was a family friend of Figueroa.
This criminal case had been known to Daly City Police Department and San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office before she was apprehended.
The sexual abuse occurred in the former Daly City residence of Figueroa during the period from 2016 to 2018.
The minor reported inappropriate touching while the duo were in bed in Figueroa’s Daly City house. Figueroa told the minor not to tell anyone else about the incident. Investigators then organized a telephone conversation between the minor and Figueroa, who apologized for her actions and according to courts records, she felt ‘horrible’ for what she had done, and that it should never had happened.
On Tuesday, October 14, 2025, she was arrested and booked into San Mateo Correctional Division. After her arrest, she was fired from her position as a daycare teacher at the University Child Care Center at Mission Bay’s Bright Horizons. The criminal charges are unrelated to her position at Bright Horizons since she had passed a background check. She had been working at the daycare center since 2021. Parents of her students in her class were notified of her arrest.
On Friday, October 17, 2025, prosecutors charged Figueroa with one count of lewd or lascivious act upon a child under 14 years old and two counts of a lewd act upon a minor by force. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, and her bail is being set for $600,000.
