Police Release Tearful Molestation Suspect : Crime: Exonerated man says he was singled out for arrest because he is black.

A man arrested as a prime suspect in the manhunt for a serial child molester walked out of police custody Tuesday after four days in jail and collapsed into the arms of his family members, saying he was treated “like a dog” and singled out for arrest because he is black.

“Here I am! Here I am!” shouted a tearful James Elliott Singletary, 45, as he ran to family members who had gathered outside the Van Nuys Courthouse lockup. “Oh God, thank you! Thank you!”

Singletary, an epileptic anti-drug activist and a born-again Christian, then sagged to the ground. He lay there spread-eagled for several minutes, shaking, crying and hugging his wife, son, daughters and other relatives as they huddled around him.

“God knows I would never do anything like what they said I did,” he told them, choking back sobs. “God knows. He is in control of all.”

Police on Tuesday confirmed that they now believe Singletary is the wrong man.

Authorities believe a serial molester is responsible for acts since February against 32 people, mostly schoolgirls, including a Nov. 3 rape.

“We’re basically letting the schools know we haven’t gotten him yet,” said Lt. Joseph Garcia at Valley police headquarters in Van Nuys. “We have tips coming in from the public, and all of them are being investigated. But we have no specific suspect.”

Police defended their arrest of Singletary at 6:30 last Friday evening, and said his name was released because it is a matter of public record, and only after some unidentified media outlet made a request.

“We don’t normally release that information,” Los Angeles Police Lt. John Dunkin said, “unless there is an inquiry.”

Police brought at least four other suspects in for questioning before releasing them in recent weeks, but did not arrest them or release their names.

In Singletary’s case, they had good reason to believe he was the serial molester, Deputy Police Chief Martin H. Pomeroy said in an interview.

Not only did Singletary and his burgundy Chevrolet Caprice match the descriptions given by some of the victims, but he was reported seen “loitering and cruising near an elementary school” shortly before being stopped, said Pomeroy, who commands all Valley police divisions.

Pomeroy said there was specific evidence that led officers to believe Singletary was a prime suspect, but that he could not comment because it might tip off the real molester to what the authorities know about his method of operation.

“We would have been derelict in our duty not to arrest him and conduct a follow-up investigation,” Pomeroy said.

“I regret the position this placed Mr. Singletary in, but it was truly unavoidable.”

“It is frustrating that we have not been able to capture this suspect yet,” Pomeroy added. “However, that frustration has not translated into our conducting a witch hunt or violating the rights of private citizens.”

Singletary and members of his family, however, said they were irate, embarrassed, and may pursue legal action against police--particularly for releasing his name.

“They’ll answer for it,” Singletary said in an interview with The Times. “I have to talk to my attorney.”

When he walked out of jail Tuesday afternoon, Singletary, holding his unlaced sneakers in one hand and his personal effects in a plastic bag in the other, stood for a moment looking skyward.

Then, quietly, he began to weep.

“I feel so terrible, so embarrassed,” he told a reporter, the first person he saw. “I’m hurt.”

“I’m a man who tries to keep children off drugs. And I’ve been in here all this time, where they treat you like a dog,” he said. “And all the pressure. I just have to thank God I’m finally out.”

Moments later Singletary, reunited with his family, recounted his arrest and questioning.

“Oh man, it’s been rough,” he told them.

“But I had to stay strong to help you all. I couldn’t let you all know how terrible it was.”

Even after he was released, Singletary said, his troubles had not ended. His car had been towed to a police impound lot, where attendants wanted $140 in storage fees to release it, he said Tuesday night.

“The pain I’m going through is bad enough,” he said, “and now they say I’ve got to pay just to get my car back. I don’t have the money and I need my car.”

After pausing a second, he added: “I’ll never forget this.”

Police had no comment on his car problem.

Singletary runs a small business called “Color Out & Away Drugs,” which manufactures shirts, calendars and other items bearing anti-drug messages.

Singletary’s epilepsy sometimes makes him look nervous and sound confused, he said.

He always wears eyeglasses--unlike the molester in police composite sketches.

And, unlike descriptions of the molester, one eye is slightly wall-eyed.

He was stopped near the corner of Victory and Balboa boulevards by police who said his tires were bald, Singletary said.

Police then ran a check on him and said he had an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation, for tickets Singletary insists he paid.

“The next thing I know, 4 1/2 hours later, is that I’ve been arrested for child molesting,” he said. Singletary said he was kept in a cold solitary confinement cell where he wrapped his arms in toilet paper to ward off the chill.

He wasn’t told he was being freed until moments before his release, he said, and no one apologized for his arrest and imprisonment.

“They just said ‘you’re going home,’ ” Singletary said.

Family members said authorities never bothered to ask them until Monday if Singletary had an alibi, and that they were either with him or talking to him on the phone Friday when the molester stalked children at two locations.

One girl was attacked at 10:15 a.m. as she took out trash at Van Nuys Elementary School.

Singletary said he was asleep until his sister called to wake him at 11:30 a.m.

“The police never talked to us, to ask us any of that,” said Singletary’s sister Barbara.

Patty Singletary said detectives told her that her husband had been under police surveillance for several days--an allegation police said they either knew nothing about or could not comment on because it was a matter of confidential police procedure.

“I knew all the time that he wasn’t the man. I knew that,” she said while waiting for her husband’s release.

“I’m very happy he’s getting out. But it was a nightmare for us the whole weekend. . . . It has ruined my family.”