REDWOOD CITY — A man listed 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 garage, police said.
The reported victim, who is 14, went with a 13-year-old friend to an unspecified parking garage to drink alcohol around 10 p.m. on the night of July 31, according to a Redwood City police news release.
While there, the two children were approached by a man walking a dog who “encouraged” their drinking and gave them marijuana, police said.
At some point, the 13-year-old went home, and the man later sexually assaulted the girl, according to her story to police. The girl reported that she stopped the assault by distracting him, and that at one point the man also offered her cocaine.
Officers became involved after they received a call to a home for a report that the 14-year-old was intoxicated, and she then described the alleged assault, according to the news release.
Using a description from the girl, police said they identified 32-year-old George Bautista Zarate as a suspect and served a search warrant on his apartment. The search reportedly “located several pieces of evidence linking him to the sexual assault.”
Bautista Zarate was found and arrested after the search was conducted, police said. Jail records show he is being held at Maguire Correctional Facility in lieu of $250,000 bail after he was charged with four counts of aggravated 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 of the offense that placed him on the state registry were not immediately available Wednesday; he is not on Megan’s Law’s online list of sex offenders, which excludes certain people based on factors including the seriousness of their crimes and their probation.