Texas police and federal law enforcement have arrested a man in connection with the sexual assault of a teenager who was taken from a Dallas Mavericks game during an alleged trafficking scheme nearly 10 months ago, officials recently announced.
Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Emanuel Cartagena, 33, on Thursday, on a felony warrant for the sexual assault of a child in Dallas, Texas, the Dallas Police Department said Friday.
According to police, the victim was 15 years old on April 8, 2022, when she attended a Dallas Mavericks NBA game at the American Airlines Center in the Texas city, police said. Her family’s attorney previously told reporters the girl went to the game with her father and had left her seat to use the bathroom when, according to police, she met Cartagena outside the arena.
TEXAS GIRL TRAFFICKED FROM DALLAS MAVERICKS GAME LISTED AS A ‘RUNAWAY’ BEFORE NUDE PHOTOS SURFACED
Emanuel Jose Cartagena was arrested on Jan. 26, 2023, on a felony warrant for allegedly sexually assaulting a then-15-year-old girl
Cartagena then took the teen to an “unknown house” in Dallas, where he sexually assaulted her, police said.
The victim, who is now reportedly 16 years old, was tracked 10 days later, on April 18, to an Oklahoma City Extended Stay America where she was being “held,” the family’s attorney, Zeke Fortenberry, said in a May press release.
TEXAS GIRL, 15, TRAFFICKED FROM MAVERICKS GAME IN DALLAS; 8 ARRESTED IN OKLAHOMA: POLICE
Fortenberry further said the hotel room, and multiple others, were booked by “a registered sex offender” who “used a false name and fake identification cards.”
TEXAS GIRL, 15, TRAFFICKED FROM MAVERICKS GAME IN DALLAS; 8 ARRESTED IN OKLAHOMA: POLICE
The victim was further sexually assaulted at the Oklahoma City hotel. She was initially reported as a runaway, police said, before the Oklahoma City Police Department discovered “online ads featuring recent photos of the missing juvenile.”
The Oklahoma City Police Department has arrested Saniya Alexander, Melissa Wheeler, Chevaun Gibson, Kenneth Nelson, Sarah Hayes, Karen Gonzales, Thalia Gibson and Steven Hill in connection to the trafficking case of a 15-year-old girl from a Dallas Mavericks game.
(Oklahoma City Detention Center)
She was allegedly nude in the photographs.
In May of that year, the Oklahoma City Police Department arrested eight people, who were hit with various charges ranging from rape to offering to engage in prostitution, human trafficking, and distribution of child pornography.
A spokesperson for Extended Stay previously told Fox News Digital it was “horrified to learn of this incident.”
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“We require that our franchisees have policies, procedures, and training in place to help hotel employees identify and report any suspected cases of human trafficking. As soon as the local hotel staff was made aware of this crime, they assisted local law enforcement on this investigation and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
