THE BRONX — A man was charged with sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl in a Mott Haven park Thursday evening but was released Friday because prosecutors said they want to investigate his alibi, according to officials.
"You're not going anywhere," Javier Lopez-Bautista, 44, said before attacking the girl as she played in St. Mary's Park near St. Anne Avenue and East 146th Street about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to police and prosecutors.
He forced her to the ground, told her "Take off your clothes," and then stripped her when she refused, officials said.
He sexually abused her, but she managed to flee when she startled him by saying people were coming, police said.
She managed to find police who then canvassed the area with her and found him, officials said.
Lopez-Bautista was arrested Friday and arraigned on charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, officials said.
He gave investigators a long alibi for where he was at the time of the attack, officials said.
Prosecutors didn't ask for bail because they didn't want him to sit in jail while they vet his alibi, a spokeswoman for the Bronx District Attorney's office said Monday.
