An L.A. police officer is suspected of trying to meet with an underage girl for lewd purposes, authorities said. His arrest followed a sting by civilian vigilantes that was posted online.
LAPD Officer Leonardo A. Ruiz was taken into custody by Monrovia police Thursday after a group calling itself Yn_vs_preds recorded video that apparently shows the officer being chased and held down, and posted it on Instagram.
Monrovia Police Capt. Sarah Corravabias confirmed in an email to The Times on Tuesday that officers responded to the 300 block of West Olive Avenue shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday.
“After an investigation, Leonardo A. Ruiz, a 31-year-old male who stated he is an employee of the Los Angeles Police Department, was arrested for an alleged violation of California Penal Code section 288.4 — arranging a meeting with a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, for lewd purposes,” wrote Corravabias, who will become police chief Nov.1. “Ruiz was subsequently released pending further investigation.”
The video shows members of the civilian group chasing and holding Ruiz. The group alleges Ruiz went to Monrovia to meet a person he believed to be a 16-year-old girl.
Ruiz is listed as an LAPD officer in the department’s roster. Shown the video link and images, the LAPD responded via Capt. Mike Bland with a statement: “We are aware of an arrest involving a Department employee. We are fully cooperating with the investigation.”
Ashton Corona, a Yn_vs_preds leader, told The Times he turned Ruiz over to Monrovia police after the group detained him. Corona said he was interviewed by the Los Angeles Police Department’s internal affairs group. Corona said that in a chat group he identified himself as a 16-year-old girl for three days before the person wanted to meet in Monrovia.
“He came to the sting location,” Corona said. “He ran away two or three times.”
Corona said he had no idea the man was a police officer.
“Monrovia police came to the place and … they took him to the local jail,” Corona said.
On the video, a group of men can be seen chasing a man and saying, “Don’t run, don’t run,” before eventually tackling him to the ground.
“Why are you here?” one of the men asks as they hold him on the ground. At one point, he tells the men he is 17, then bolts again. The video eventually shows the group members looking at the man’s phone. An LAPD badge is visible on a phone screen. The sequence concludes with Monrovia police leading the man away in handcuffs.
So-called pedophile hunting groups fashioned after the television program “To Catch a Predator” have spawned across the country, but their actions have been criticized for taking the law into their own hands and sometimes endangering themselves and their targets.
