The Fourth of July was ruined for two girls after they say a man, later identified as an illegal alien, groped them in a Michigan amusement park wave pool.
Eliazar Rivas-Rodriguez, 29, of Middlebury, Indiana is charged with assaulting two 17-year-old girls at Michigan’s Adventure on Independence Day.
He was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of “fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving force or coercion.” The hearing was conducted through a Spanish-speaking interpreter, Mlive reports.
One of the girls reported to a guardian that a stranger grabbed her in the crotch area once. The other said he did it three times in succession, “then grabbed her by the ankle under the water when she tried to flee.”
The girls identified the suspect, who was reported to lifeguards and subsequently park security.
Rivas-Rodriguez was kept in eyesight until a Michigan State trooper arrived.
The suspect, interviewed through an interpreter, denied the allegations.
Court documents say Rivas-Rodriguez has been living in the Goshen, Indiana area for the last 10 years. That’s about a 2-hour drive from the amusement park.
The arrest affidavit listed the suspect as an “illegal immigrant.”
Muskegon County Chief 60th District Judge Maria Ladas Hoopes set his bond at $50,000 cash or surety, according to the paper.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy M. Maat says at the end of the court process, regardless of the outcome, the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office typically will notify the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service “that an undocumented immigrant has been charged with a crime.”
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