CHARGES DENIED IN ATTACKS OF GIRLS : NEWHALL MAN HELD IN 2 INCIDENTS.Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer A Newhall man was accused Tuesday of attempting to kidnap a 13-year-old girl off the street and then molesting two other teen-agers in Valencia before he was apprehended by two witnesses. Kenneth Wayne Pettit, 24, was arraigned in Newhall Municipal Court on charges of attempted kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. and sexual battery in what authorities were calling a pair of brazen bra·zen adj. 1. Marked by flagrant and insolent audacity. See Synonyms at shameless. 2. Having a loud, usually harsh, resonant sound: "sudden brazen clashes of the soldiers' band" Saturday afternoon attacks. He pleaded not guilty, and was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail. He is scheduled to return to court July 31 for a preliminary hearing. Pettit is accused of assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Newhall about 4:40 p.m. Saturday as she walked along San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the city and county of Los Angeles. It starts off in Castaic as The Old Road, passing through Santa Clarita and the Newhall Pass, where upon its intersection with Sierra Highway near the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and the near Arch Street with her 8-year-old brother. ``He came up and grabbed the girl and tried to carry her off. She was kicking and screaming, and finally he let her go,'' said Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Ulfig. ``He told her he thought she was someone else and then drove off.'' A little more than an hour later two 15-year-old girls were walking along Creekside Drive across from Valencia Nissan, a car dealership This article is about car dealerships. For the indie pop band, see Dealership (band). A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new cars and/or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or , when a man they had seen following them came up behind them, Ulfig said. ``He grabbed one girl by the shoulder and fondled her. He kept grabbing her but she was a fighter. He also grabbed the other one, but fortunately a car salesman and potential buyer saw it all go down,'' Ulfig said. ``They ran up and restrained him until deputies arrived.'' Deputies later found Pettit's 1993 Ford Taurus Not to be confused with Ford Taunus. The Ford Taurus is currently a full-size, front-wheel drive or all wheel drive automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in North America. parked at the Valencia Town Center, where the girls had been, Ulfig said. Investigators believe Pettit followed the girls from the mall, and then attacked them along a relatively isolated stretch of Creekside Drive, not realizing the dealership still was open, she said. After Pettit's arrest, the 13-year-old girl identified him as the same person who had attempted to kidnap her earlier. Pettit, who lives with his mother, has no prior criminal record and apparently works as a shipping clerk, Ulfig said. The car salesman could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was David Hizami, who represented Pettit at the arraignment A criminal proceeding at which the defendant is officially called before a court of competent jurisdiction, informed of the offense charged in the complaint, information, indictment, or other charging document, and asked to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or as otherwise permitted , declined comment. |
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