A Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department battalion chief has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery — the second time he has faced a battery allegation — and remains on duty.
Terran Mark League Jr., 49, of Temecula, is scheduled to enter a plea on April 11 at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office charged League on March 4, and he was released on his own recognizance after signing a promise to appear before a judge, Superior Court records show.
The DA’s complaint lists the victim as a man, John Doe, and said prosecutors plan to “admit evidence of prior sexual acts.”
Information on the exact nature of the alleged offense was not available. League was cited at 12:07 a.m. on Nov. 27 at the intersection of Santiago and Ynez roads in Temecula, according to the citation.
League’s attorney did not return two messages seeking comment.
League had been a battalion chief in the Temecula area, supervising several fire stations. On June 14, 2021, League was transferred to the Los Piños California Conservation Corps camp near Lake Elsinore, said Capt. Richard Cordova, a Cal Fire spokesman.
League remained employed after pleading guilty in August 2019 to misdemeanor battery in a case in which he was accused of hitting a woman and pulling her by the hair, according to a sworn statement written by a sheriff’s investigator to obtain an arrest warrant.
League was sentenced to 60 days in a recovery and treatment center in lieu of jail time, three years probation and was ordered to complete an anger-management class, in which he was “a star pupil” and shared insight, according to court records. He was on probation at the time of his 2021 arrest but was not charged with violating probation, which expires on Aug. 15.
Cal Fire allows some employees who are under criminal suspicion to remain on duty, but not all. Officials at the Sacramento headquarters have not responded to repeated requests by this news organization to explain that policy or say whether one exists.
In August 2019, Division Chief Jodie Lynn Gray, who essentially served as Temecula fire chief, was charged with two misdemeanor counts, brandishing a firearm and battery on a spouse or co-habitant, after prosecutors say she pulled a gun on her boyfriend. Gray was placed on paid administrative leave but was later assigned to the Riverside County Unit headquarters in Perris and then to a position in the desert.
Gray later married her boyfriend and retired. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled for a trial on May 10 in Riverside.
But not all employees who have faced criminal charges have stayed on the job.
In April 2019, Cal Fire firefighter Eric Norwood, who was assigned to a San Jacinto station, was fired three days after he and his wife were charged with arson, filing a false insurance claim and other crimes, Cal Fire said. Norwood and Linda Lee Norwood both eventually pleaded guilty to four felony charges and were sentenced to four years in state prison after admitting that they set their truck ablaze in a scheme to get out from under an $830 monthly payment.
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