45°
Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, a 35-year-old Ecuadorian national who previously had been deported but snuck back into the U.S., “forced the girl to perform acts on him” and was taking her to Chicago, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement.
A trooper stopped a 2013 Nissan Sentra driven by Morrales-Pedraza on westbound Route 80 in Lucas County on Tuesday for failing to move over, the highway patrol said.
Neither he nor the girl spoke any English, authorities said.
Troopers suspected and later confirmed that he’d sexually assaulted the girl – whom they discovered had been reported missing -- after abducting her in Paterson, they said.
Morales-Pedraza is charged with abduction and sexual assault, among other counts. He remained held in the Lucas County Correctional Center – with an ICE detainer -- pending a hearing Thursday.
The girl, meanwhile, was brought to a local hospital.
New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency is among the agencies investigating.
******
ALSO SEE: Two Passaic County sheriff’s detectives who tracked down and arrested a Paterson man wanted on a probation violation found him carrying 19 bogus credit cards, three phony health insurance cards and more, authorities said.
******
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
