Dial-a-Ride Driver Held in Attack on Boy

The driver of a Dial-a-Ride van in Val Verde has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly beating a 10-year-old boy after he boarded the vehicle, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official said Saturday.

The Castaic boy was allegedly attacked by Mike White, 31, Friday afternoon and then later was found on a rural road, the official said.

“It was a horrendous type of crime and also random,” said Lt. Tim Peters of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station. Investigators did not have a motive for the attack, Peters said, and were trying to determine if the boy was sexually assaulted.

The boy, whose name was not released, had bruises and scratches on his face and upper body. Officials at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia would not provide details Saturday about his condition or say whether he was still in the hospital.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested White at his home on Larkmain Drive about 9 p.m. Friday, Peters said. White, a Santa Clarita Transit Co. employee, was being held at the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s jail on $1-million bail, Peters said.

White has no criminal record, Peters said. He will be arraigned at Newhall Municipal Court on Monday.

According to sheriff’s deputies, the boy was on his way to Santa Clarita when he got in the Santa Clarita Dial-a-Ride van at Parker Road and the Old Road in Castaic. There were no other passengers, Peters said.

After the alleged attack off Del Valle Road in Val Verde, the boy, waving and crying, flagged down Los Angeles County fireman Robert Dobratz, who was driving on Del Valle, Peters said.