Redwood City: Man arrested after teen reports sexual assault in parking garage

A man on the state's sex offender registry offered drugs to a 14-year-old girl and attacked her, police say.

REDWOOD CITY — A man listed on the state’s sex offender registry was arrested late last month after a teen girl accused him of sexually assaulting her after offering her drugs in a parking garage, police said.

The reported victim, who is 14, went with a 13-year-old friend to an unspecified parking garage to drink alcohol around 10 p.m. the night of July 31, according to a Redwood City police news release.

While there, the two children were approached by a man walking with a dog and who “encouraged” their drinking and gave them marijuana, police said.

At some point, the 13-year-old went home, and the man later sexually assaulted the girl, according to her account to police. The girl reported that she stopped the assault by distracting him, and that at one point the man also offered her cocaine.

Police officers got involved after they got a call to a home for a report of the 14-year-old being intoxicated, and she then detailed the alleged assault, according to the news release.

Using a description provided by the girl, police said officers identified 32-year-old George Bautista Zarate as a suspect and served a search warrant at his apartment. The search reportedly “located several items of evidence linking him to the sexual assault.”

Bautista Zarate was found and arrested after the search was conducted, police said. Jail records show he is being held at the Maguire Correctional Facility in lieu of $250,000 bail after he was booked on suspicion of four felony sexual assault crimes, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and furnishing marijuana to a minor.

Police said in the news release that Bautista Zarate is a registered sex offender. Details on the crime that placed him on the state registry were not immediately available Wednesday; he is not on the Megan’s Law online listing of sex offenders, which excludes certain people based on factors including the severity of their crime and their probation status.