REDWOOD CITY — A man on the state’s sex offender registry was arrested late last month after a teenage girl accused him of sexually assaulting her after offering her drugs in a parking lot, police said.
The reported victim, 14, went with a 13-year-old friend to an unspecified parking lot to drink alcohol around 10 p.m. on the night of July 31, according to a Redwood City police news release.
At the scene, the two children were approached by a man walking a dog who “encouraged” them to drink and gave them marijuana, police said.
At some point, the 13-year-old girl returned home and the man then sexually assaulted the girl, according to her version of events. The girl said she stopped the assault by distracting him and that at one point the man also offered her cocaine.
Officers responded to a call at a home about an intoxicated 14-year-old boy, who later detailed the alleged assault, according to the news release.
According to police, who based their investigation on the girl’s description, officers identified George Bautista Zarate, 32, as the suspect and executed a search warrant at his apartment. The search reportedly “located multiple pieces of evidence linking him to the sexual assault.”
Bautista Zarate was located and arrested after the search, police said. Jail records show he is being held at Maguire Correctional Center on $250,000 bail after being arrested on suspicion of four felony counts of sexual assault, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and furnishing marijuana to a minor.
Police said in the news release that Bautista Zarate is a registered sex offender. Details about the crime that put him on the state registry were not immediately available Wednesday; he is not on the online Megan’s Law sex offender list, which excludes certain people based on factors such as the severity of their crime and their probation status.
