Rape Suspect Had Been in State Hospital

A man charged with kidnaping and raping a 10-year-old Rosemead girl is a former mentally disordered sex offender released from a state hospital in June, 1984, state mental health officials said Friday.

Lloyd Eugene Neeley, 45, allegedly forced the girl into his van as she was walking alone near her home at about 3 p.m. Thursday, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

He drove a few blocks away where he sexually assaulted the girl, deputies said. He then released her. The girl had the presence of mind to note the license plate number of the van, deputies said.

Los Angeles police located the van later Thursday at the Los Angeles Mission, 443 S. Los Angeles St., and arrested Neeley inside the building where he works in the dormitory, deputies said.

Neeley was booked at the Temple City Sheriff’s Station for investigation of forcible rape, kidnapping, sexual battery, lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor and taking sexually exploitative photographs of a juvenile. He is being held on $100,000 bail.

The girl was treated and released at a local hospital.

In June, 1978, Neeley pleaded guilty in Bakersfield to one count of rape and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a 6-year-old girl, said Kern County Assistant Dist. Atty. Richard Bradshaw. Neeley was committed to Atascadero State Hospital on July 31, 1978, and released from Patton State Hospital in San Bernadino on June 29, 1984, mental health officials said.

Mark Holsinger, director of the Los Angeles Mission, said Neeley had lived and worked at the Mission since his release, and that the mission’s staff was “quite shocked” by his arrest.