Police: Man accused of grabbing girl says he was in park bathroom maybe looking for ‘fun’

By Brian Nordli

Thursday, March 21, 2013 | 4:44 p.m.

A Boulder City man accused of grabbing a 6-year-old girl Sunday at Mountain View Park in Henderson told police he was in the women’s bathroom maybe looking to “have a little fun,” a Henderson Police declaration of arrest report states.

Police allege that James Allen, 30, grabbed the girl as she was leaving the park bathroom.

The victim said a man asked her to spit out her gum, and when she didn’t comply, he tried to take it out himself, the report said. The girl said she screamed and ran away. The report said another woman claimed that Allen had showed unusual interest in her 3-year-old daughter during a visit to the park on March 15. She said Allen pestered her for her daughter’s name and wanted to give her daughter a tennis ball, the report said.

When police questioned Allen, he said he visited the park on March 15 and March 17 and initially entered the bathroom on Sunday to retrieve a tennis ball, according to the report.

He also said he did place his hand over the girl’s mouth, the report said.

Later, when police continued to question him about why he was in the bathroom, he said, “Maybe I was seeing if I could have a little fun,” the report said.

Allen told police that he has an attraction to teenage girls and likes to touch himself in the women’s bathroom, according to the report.

Police arrested Allen on Tuesday. He was booked into the Henderson Detention Center on counts of kidnapping, child abuse and burglary.

The arrest report states that the counts stem from the fact that Allen entered the bathroom with the intent to commit a felony, that he blocked the girl from leaving and reaching her parents, that he put his hand on her mouth and that he injured the girl’s face.