A Van Nuys man was arrested on suspicion of molesting a minor and sexual battery after reportedly making sexual advances on a 16-year-old at a hotel in Canyon Country, according to Sgt. Joseph Mesa with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Unit.
The man was accused of meeting a minor on social media, offering her a ride and taking her to a hotel on the 17900 block of Sierra Highway, which was where the alleged sex crimes took place, according to Mesa.
The minor, an L.A. resident, reportedly called law enforcement from the hotel. Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station then responded to the hotel and arrested the man.
The suspect was booked into the SCV Sheriff’s Station and initially held in lieu of $150,000 bail. According to Sheriff’s Department records available online, he was released on Wednesday in accordance with California Penal Code 849(B)(1) — which states the reason for a person’s release was because “the officer is satisfied that there are insufficient grounds for making a criminal complaint against the person arrested.”
