Deputy suspected of raping girl in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles County sheriff’s child sex crimes detective has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl in a case he was investigating.

Neil Kimball was taken into custody Friday evening after a monthslong inquiry into the allegations by the sheriff’s criminal internal investigation bureau.

Kimball was booked on suspicion of rape by force and preventing or dissuading a victim from testifying.

The 45-year-old investigator with the special victims unit met the girl during the “scope of his work,” a department spokeswoman said Monday.

Kimball has investigated dozens of child molestation cases in Los Angeles County during the last few years as a member of the elite specialized unit.

“The investigation and arrest resulted from information provided to the department by a member of the public,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

It did not announce the arrest Friday and provided the statement after an inquiry by the Los Angeles Times.

The alleged attack occurred in November 2017 in Ventura County, said Michael Schwartz, Ventura County chief assistant district attorney, whose office has been involved in the case for the last month.

After sheriff’s internal criminal affairs investigators determined that the alleged crime occurred in Ventura County, they reached out to that county’s district attorney’s office to assist them with the criminal case, sheriff’s officials said.

Kimball was relieved of duty with pay and was booked at the Los Angeles County Inmate Reception Center shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. His bail was set at $2 million.

Kimball was previously investigated in February 2009, after a woman told the Sheriff’s Department that Kimball grabbed her hand and tried to make her touch his genitals several months earlier, according to a memo from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors declined to file a charge of sexual battery against Kimball in that case, finding no corroborating evidence of the woman’s complaint.