Michael Neal Watson Jr. is in custody accused of sexually assaulting nine women and four minors under threat of a firearm; authorities suspect there may be more Watson victims
Los Angeles County officers arrested a 21-year-old African-American man suspected of sexually assaulting at least 13 women and girls.
Michael Neal Watson Jr., 21, is in custody accused of sexually assaulting nine women and four minors under threat of a firearm.
In some cases, authorities said, the suspect also stole their cell phones and used their contact lists to find more victims.
Watson first came to the attention of detectives in February of last year when they received a report of a sexual assault in the city of Walnut.
Inglewood police and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers also worked in coordination with the county Sheriff’s Department to track down an alleged crime wave.
According to investigators, the suspect took some of the victims’ cell phones at gunpoint after committing the sexual assaults.
Detectives said Watson forced the victims to give him their usernames and codes so he could access their phone contacts and allegedly find more victims to commit more sexual assaults and robberies.
In some cases, the suspect contacted the victims with promises of fame, and in others they allegedly resorted to extortion.
“Every victim had a different angle, one of them was to turn a model into an internet superstar,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Joe Ramos.
“Mr. Watson was very intelligent depending on who he talked to. And if he had photos of the victims on his cell phone, some nude photos, he would extort them; any information he was able to get from a victim he used to lure them out,” the officer added.
The investigators are convinced that he could have victimized more women, so they requested that if other victims were assaulted by Watson, to present their complaints.
Watson is in the custody of authorities on a $1.7 million dollar bond.
The defendant is expected to have his next court appearance in January 2023.