A 24-year-old Wisconsin man who traveled to the Twin Lakes Area to re-connect with a 15-year-old female appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court last Monday (February 10).
Jose Eduardo Reyes-Cortez is facing charges in both Baxter and Marion County stemming from the incident.
In Baxter County, Reyes-Cortez is charged with 2nd degree sexual assault, several counts of possessing child pornography, and traveling for the purpose of having an unlawful sex act with a minor. He pled not guilty to those charges.
The Marion County charge is interference with the custody of a minor.
In late July last year, Mountain Home Police were called to the Hampton Inn to check out “suspicious activity.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, the manager of the hotel first went to the room because of noise complaints. He said no one came to the door, but he could hear a female inside the room asking for help.
When officers went to the room, they also reported that they could hear a female in the room sounding upset and telling someone repeatedly not to hurt her.
The officers entered the room to check on the welfare of the female and found an “extremely intoxicated” 15-year-old girl. She was identified as the one who had been reported missing from her home in Marion County July 24 last year.
Motel staff told the officers Reyes-Cortez and the girl had checked in to the motel just before noon on July 24.
Officers said the room was found in disarray with a number of bottles of “intoxicants” and bedding scattered on the floor.
The victim was reported to have initially been uncooperative and combative with the officers and was also said to have made threats to harm herself.
The victim was taken to Baxter Health.
When the mother of the teen was questioned, she said they had moved to this area from Janesville, Wisconsin to “get away from Reyes-Cortez who was pursuing” the girl.
According to a report from Janesville police, Reyes was found to have had the same minor female in his bedroom at one point, even though he was reported to be aware that he “was not supposed to be with the girl.”
The girl was reported missing twice in Wisconsin last year and both times she was found with Reyes-Cortez.
After driving to the Twin Lakes Area, Reyes-Cortez was alleged to have “facilitated” the girl’s leaving her residence in Marion County. She was then brought to the motel in Mountain Home.
The probable cause affidavit does not explain how Reyes-Cortez facilitated getting the girl to leave her house.
Reyes-Cortez admitted to officers that an IPhone found in the room when hotel staff cleaned it was his personal phone.
The phone is alleged to have had various pornographic pictures stored on it.
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