Suspect Apprehended, Released Over Sexual Misconduct Fears

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter

Police are searching for a “person of interest” who has been accused of sexually harassing young women in public spaces around the Village.

LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore is investigating complaints that a stranger, described as a white man in his mid-50s with thinning hair and an unspecified “foreign” accent, has engaged in uninvited physical contact with at least one teenage girl.

After one incident, he was apprehended by a private security firm, but they were unable to hold him or find any identity documents.

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, the man, dressed in a white Adidas T-shirt, a gold chain and bright blue track shorts, followed two teenage girls from Palisades Garden Cafe into the Palisades Village Center where the young women regularly take classes at the Fancy Feet Dance Studio.

The two girls were reportedly approached by the man and asked sexually charged questions before he touched one of the teenage victims inappropriately.

The dance studio, which takes the security of its young charges very seriously and has six CCTV cameras monitoring the environs, was able to capture a photograph of the suspect that it passed onto LAPD and the Palisadian-Post.

On Wednesday, Aug. 2, friends of the victims were approached by the same man on the Village Green where he asked them similar questions before asking them for illegal drugs.

The victims immediately contacted Fancy Feet where owner Emily Kay Tillman’s husband, Michael Tillman, and the parents of one of the victims were in attendance.

Tillman rushed to the Village Green where he confronted the suspect and walked him out of town to wait for Palisades Patrol, a private security company.

But as the parents had not made a formal complaint, the patrol had to release the suspect.

Moore is concerned that the stranger’s behavior could escalate and has requested Palisadians to email him urgently or phone 911 if they see the person of interest in town.