No Charges on Man Who Left With Girl, 16

Authorities said Tuesday they will not prosecute a 30-year-old movie-theater doorman who was apprehended in a small Montana town with a 16-year-old girl who police feared had been kidnaped.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond said police have no evidence that a crime was committed when Thomas Allen Chapman of Canoga Park disappeared more than a week ago with Michelle Ann Zaslavsky, a Calabasas High School student.

The girl was found unharmed Monday when she and Chapman emerged from a restaurant in Deer Lodge, Mont. They were last seen Aug. 14 leaving the Woodland Hills Cinema, where they both worked, police said.

Phone Interview

Zaslavsky told Detective Ed Pikor that she had accompanied Chapman voluntarily, Pikor said. However, she refused to answer any more of Pikor’s questions about her disappearance in a telephone interview Monday.

Chapman was released Tuesday from Powell County Jail in Montana, where he was being held on suspicion of child stealing. Pikor said he plans to interview the girl again today.

Under California law, suspects must be released from custody within 48 hours of arrest if no charges are filed.

Diamond said that if information surfaces to indicate that a crime occurred, then a case could be resubmitted for prosecution.

Zaslavsky’s parents flew to Montana Monday evening to be reunited with their daughter. All three returned to California Tuesday, Pikor said.

Police launched a search for Zaslavsky, fearing she had been kidnaped by Chapman, a married father of two. Zaslavsky and Chapman became friends after she started working at the theater five months ago. Co-workers told police that Chapman had become upset when Zaslavsky resisted his overtures.