An LAPD officer was arrested Saturday and accused of sexually abusing two young girls.
Police claim officer Miguel Schiappapietra, 28,
lured two girls under the age of 10 into his Castaic, Calif., home and molested them, according to KTLA. The girls are not related to Schiappapietra, authorities said.
He was booked on two counts of lewd acts with a child, which, under section 288 of the California Penal Code, reads:
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"Any person who willfully and lewdly commits any lewd or lascivious act ... upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child who is under the age of 14 years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires of that person or the child, is guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or eight years."
Schiappapietra was held on $100,000 bail and scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
"You know, having children of my own and knowing there are other children in this neighborhood…I had no idea it was going on down there.
It’s very disturbing," Tim Rossi, who lives in Schiappapietra's neighborhood, told CBS Los Angeles.
Schiappapietra had been an officer at the LAPD's Foothill Division.
He has been with the department since March 2007, LAPD spokesman Richard French told NBC Los Angeles. He is now on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal LAPD investigation, as well as the ongoing criminal matter.
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The officer is reportedly the father of a young child himself, and had moved into the neighborhood just five weeks ago.
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