ELKHART — An Elkhart man is accused of sexual misconduct after police say they found him in a car with an underage girl while they were investigating suspicious activity.
Christian Centeno Rodriguez, 21, is charged with sexual misconduct with a minor as a Level 4 felony after his arrest last week. He was booked in the Elkhart County Correctional Facility on $75,000 bond and given an initial hearing date of April 23.
According to court documents:
An Elkhart officer was on patrol on April 6 when he noticed headlights in American Park at around 3:19 a.m., long after the park had closed. After driving into the park to investigate, he found a vehicle that was running with the windshield fogged over.
The officer found Centeno Rodriguez in the driver’s seat and a girl who was under age 18 in the passenger seat. There were discarded articles of clothing including a bra on the back seat, according to police.
The girl stated that they were having sex but she didn’t know how old Centeno Rodriguez was, according to police. Another officer arrived to take the girl back home, where her legal guardian said they knew she was with a young man but didn’t know how old he was.
She was later taken to St. Joseph Hospital for a sexual assault examination.
Centeno Rodriguez denied that he had sex with the girl but acknowledged that the bra was hers. He claimed that they got sleepy while driving near the park so they stopped to take a nap.
Police collected DNA evidence from the vehicle and obtained a warrant to compare it to Centeno Rodriguez’s DNA.