Restaurant owner charged with groping teen employee

A 56-year-old owner of a Fredonia restaurant who is accused of repeatedly groping one of his teenage employees and asking her to have sex with him was bound over for trial in Ozaukee County Circuit Court on multiple felonies Monday.

Cedar Grove resident David Morales, who waived his right to a preliminary hearing during his Nov. 9 court appearance, was charged last week with grooming a child for sexual activity by a person in a position of trust, child sexual exploitation and two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

He also faces two felony counts of possession of child pornography because of what authorities found when searching his phone.

When Morales was arrested on Friday, Oct. 30, at Bada Bing Pizza, the restaurant he owns and where the crimes are alleged to have occurred, authorities seized his cell phone. A review of its contents three days later revealed that the alleged victim was listed as a contact in his phone and in his Snapchat account, where authorities found two photos of the girl — one of her completely naked standing in front of a mirror and another of her naked from the waist up, according to a criminal complaint.

During Morales’ initial court appearance on Nov. 3, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Adam Gerol set his bail at $50,000. After that hearing, the complaint against Morales was amended to include the exploitation and sexual assault charges, and on Monday Gerol increased his bail to $100,000.

An Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy investigating a report of the crimes spoke on Oct. 29 with a girl who told him her boss, Morales, touched her inappropriately multiple times while she was working at the restaurant, according to the complaint, which says the girl was 17 when she met with the deputy.

She said the touching began in mid to late September and included him grabbing and holding onto her butt and trying to lift her shirt and has continued since then. She said Morales had touched her inappropriately every day she worked that week, adding that he watches her when she bends down or when he asks her to pick something up off the floor, the complaint states.

In one instance, the girl said, Morales came up from behind her, reached around her and grabbed both of her breasts, according  to the complaint.

The girl said when she asked if she could go to the bathroom, Morales would tell her she could if she let him grab her butt, which he did. When she asked if she could order food for herself, Morales said he would pay for it if he could touch her. She said Morales touched her in exchange for food three to five times and told her not to tell anyone about it and that if she kept quiet he would continue buying her things, the complaint states.

  The girl said she began working at Bada Bing in July, and about a month later Morales began making sexual comments to her and continued to make them every chance he got. She said he asked her multiples time to stay after work so they could have sex, adding it would be a “one-time thing,” and mentioning in explicit detail what they would do, according to the complaint.

She said Morales offered to pay her to sleep with him, which she never agreed to do, the complaint states.

The girl said Morales also repeatedly offered to pay her to send him photos of herself naked, raising the price he was willing to pay each time she said no. Eventually, the girl said, she sent him sexually explicit images via Snapchat and he paid her $50. The girl showed a deputy two of the images saved in her Snapchat account, and the deputy noticed they were the same two photos of the girl found on Morales’ phone, according to the complaint.

After Morales’ arrest, a deputy asked him if he found 16-year-olds attractive. He responded, “Sure, I think there’s a number of younger women that are attractive,” adding that all of his employees are attractive and no one should feel like they are not attractive, the complaint states.

Morales also said girls have sent him photos of themselves in their prom dresses and he has told them they look “hot” and “great,” according to the complaint.

He is scheduled to enter pleas to the charges against him during a Dec. 7 arraignment hearing.

Morales told Ozaukee Press in 2020 that he and his wife purchased Bada Bing Pizza in Fredonia in January of that year and the Bada Bing location in Cedar Grove in 2018.