Teenager's disclosure of sexual assault on her college admissions essay leads to arrest warrants

TACOMA -- A teenager's disclosure in her college admissions essay that she had been sexually assaulted by a neighbor when she was 5 or 6 years old has led to arrest warrants being issued in Pierce County against a fugitive 58-year-old sex offender.

According to court documents, the woman, who turned 18 this past July, said in her college admissions essay that she had been sexually assaulted by an adult male neighbor when she was young. Child Protective Services then referred the matter to the Tacoma Police Department.

During an interview with police in May, the teenager, identified as H.L., said she has been assaulted by a neighbor named "Lalo" who had a wife named Belinda and a son named William. She said she and her younger sister, S.L., would go over to Lalo's house to play with his son and it was during this time that she was molested.

H.L. said the neighbor touched her sexually under her clothes at some point in 2002. After the second time, she did not return to his house, she told police. She also said that her younger sister, who was 4 or 5 years old at the time, was touched by the man, too.

Tacoma police interviewed S.L., who said the man rubbed her sexually on the outside of her pants during the same time period.

Police said they were able to discover that Everardo Miranda, 58, who goes by the nickname Lalo, lived near the girls in 2002 and that he had a wife named Belinda and a son named William -- and that he was a registered sex offender who had failed to report for his monthly report date on Aug. 5.

Miranda's wife told police that Miranda had gone to Mexico and is never coming back.

Prosecutors asked that arrest warrants be issued against Miranda for two counts of first-degree child molestation against H.L. and one count of first-degree molestation against S.L.

The arrest warrants were granted last Friday.