UCLA student commissioner to be arraigned on false imprisonment charge

A student government commissioner at UCLA was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment after a fellow student alleged he had sexually assaulted her within the past several months, university police said.

Omar Arce, 21, is scheduled to be arraigned on the false imprisonment charge Friday after he was taken to the West Hollywood sheriff’s station, said Nancy Greenstein, a spokeswoman for the UCLA Police Department.

The school’s student body president initially announced that Arce had faced a sexual assault charge, but Greenstein said that was inaccurate.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records show that Arce, an undergraduate, was arrested early Wednesday by university police. He is being held in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Arce heads the UCLA Undergraduate Students Assn.’s Community Service Commission, which oversees 23 student-run community service projects involving more than 2,000 students. It’s the largest student-run, student-initiated community service organization in the nation, according to the commission’s website. The program focuses on bringing social change and understanding to the greater Los Angeles and Tijuana community.

Student association President John Joanino, who announced Arce’s arrest, said in a statement that the work of his office won’t stop.

”The CSC is comprised of resilient students dedicated to service, civic engagement, and community empowerment,” Joanino said.

He added that he would work to ensure “the office continues to run smoothly and that this incident does not affect or jeopardize the tireless work of the CSC’s staff members.”

Arce immigrated to the United States from Mexico when he was 12, according to his biography on the UCLA website. Arce found his calling in service and began tutoring kids in Mid-City his freshman year and said he wants UCLA to become the most service-minded college in the nation.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @josephserna