Times Reporter Is Arrested on Sex Charge
A Los Angeles Times reporter has been charged in Van Nuys Municipal Court with engaging in a sex act with a 13-year-old girl, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Samuel S. Enriquez, 34, of Northridge, who covers education for The Times’ Valley edition, is to be arraigned Aug. 9 on a felony charge of oral copulation with a person under 14 years old. The maximum penalty is eight years in prison.
Enriquez was arrested about 9 p.m. last Thursday in Van Nuys after plainclothes detectives saw the girl orally copulating him in his car, according to the arrest report.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Fisch, who filed the complaint Monday, said that police had the girl, an apparent runaway, under surveillance because they thought she was engaged in prostitution.
Enriquez is free on $30,000 bail, according to court records, and has been placed on leave by The Times pending further investigation of the incident.
Enriquez declined to comment.
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