SAN DIEGO — A Marine at California’s Camp Pendleton has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl found in a base barracks, the military announced Friday.
Military prosecutors charged the Marine with assaulting a minor and violating freedom restrictions from an earlier, unrelated case. After a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 17, authorities will decide whether he will face a court-martial, said a statement from Captain Charles Palmer of the 1st Marine Logistics Group.
The Marine’s identity and other details of the case, such as when and how he met the teen and how she got to the base, were not immediately released.
The girl had been missing for more than two weeks when military police found her in a barracks at the base 40 miles north of San Diego on June 28.
Her grandmother has said that the girl ran away in early June. Other family members have speculated that she was sold by a sex trafficker.
She has been returned to her grandmother in suburban Spring Valley, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.
All visitors will be stopped by Marines at the entrance to the sprawling base and must show permission to enter the base. Marines are allowed to bring a visitor onto the base and barracks until a specific hour, which varies by building.
