LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Multiple Charges Sought in Kidnaping of Girl
The Sheriff’s Department said it will ask prosecutors to file felony charges today against a 31-year-old Mexican national accused of taking a 14-year-old girl from her home south of Mexico City and holding her as a sex slave at a cafe in the Lennox area.
Mike Botula, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Augustin Ramirez is to be arraigned in downtown Los Angeles sometime today.
The girl’s brother, Marcelino Benitez, 29, who came to this country recently from Mexico, told reporters how he tracked down his sister last week after their mother called him to say the girl had been kidnaped. With Benitez’s help, Ramirez was arrested at the restaurant on Friday.
Sgt. Bob Stoneman, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said that while some aspects of the girl’s story had yet to be confirmed, the department will seek “multiple felony counts.”
He declined to specify what counts will be sought.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
