Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Unit detectives are investigating a 33-year-old Santa Clarita man suspected of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he solicited using an online teen chat room, officials confirmed Tuesday.
Kai Whitney Sommers, 33, of Santa Clarita, was arrested April 23 on suspicion of multiple counts of sexual assault as a result of the investigation by SVU detectives.
Detectives began their investigation in December regarding a report of a 14 year-old girl who was sexually assaulted at a residence located in in the 20400 block of Soledad Canyon Road.
The suspect began communicating with the victim in September 2020, initially in a teen chat room on the Internet, according to Sgt. Brian Hudson of the SVU. The two then used a messaging app on their cellphones to communicate.
Detectives believe Sommers picked up the victim Oct. 1 from her residence in San Bernardino County and drove her back to his residence in Santa Clarita. Once at his residence, the suspect sexually assaulted the victim. He then drove the victim back to her residence later that morning.
Detectives presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on April 13, which included six felony allegations, including sodomy, lewd acts with a child, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, unlawful oral copulation and communicating with a minor for the purpose of sexual contact.
Deputies arrested Sommers April 23 and he was booked at Santa Clarita Valley with bail set at $325,000. He was released on bond Tuesday, according to Sheriff’s Department records.
He was scheduled to enter a plea at his preliminary arraignment Monday in San Fernando, although the outcome of that proceeding was not immediately available.
He’s due back in court May 4.
