Man faces new charges after allegedly trying to dissuade victim
Was found with missing 16-year-old girl
The Yuba City man found with a 16-year-old after she had been reported missing for a week appeared in court Friday for a bail hearing on new charges.
Allen G. Turner Jr., 38, facing charges of sex with a minor and concealment of a child from a legal custodian, is facing new charges of attempting to prevent a victim from reporting a crime, attempting to prevent a victim from assisting in prosecution, and willfully disobeying a court order.
Turner was originally arrested April 11 when Sutter County sheriff’s deputies located the missing girl in his company at a residence in the 700 block of Lincoln Road. She had gone missing from the parking lot of a Live Oak church. Turner was released on bail on April 17, according to a pretrial services report, and arrested again on June 14 for the new charges.
According to the report, between June 5 and June 17, Turner had been communicating with the minor through Facebook messages. During that time, there was an active no-contact order. In those messages, the defendant was attempting to prevent the victim from reporting his violation of the order, according to court documents.
Turner also allegedly told her that the prosecution has no evidence in the first set of charges, and threatened to commit suicide over the charges, according to the report.
“The victim advised officers that she communicated with the defendant as she did not want to have his suicide on her conscience,” according to the report.
On Friday, Turner’s attorney argued that the victim contacted her client first, and he realized responding to her messages was wrong. She said Turner was willing to comply with any social media or contact restrictions if a lowered bail requirement was possible.
Judge Susan Green instead increased Turner’s $100,000 bail to $200,000.
Turner is scheduled to next appear on June 28 and June 30.