LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A convicted sex offender allegedly grabbed a 5-year-old at Las Vegas park, leading to the man’s arrest on new charges, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.
A Clark County grand jury indicted David Neal Jr., 44, last week on charges of child abuse, kidnapping, and prohibited acts by a sex offender, records said.
On Aug. 14, Neal allegedly attempted to kidnap the child playing football at Charlie Frias Park on Tropicana Avenue and Decatur Boulevard, documents said.
The child told police he was running up a hill when Neal ran up behind him and grabbed him, documents said. Multiple parents saw the incident and yelled at Neal to let the child go, which he did. Neal then ran off to another part of the park.
Neal is a registered sex offender who was required to register after a conviction for coercion with force or threat of force enhancement sex, police said. The Nevada Sex Offender Registry places Neal’s primary address as the intersection of Tropicana and Decatur.
Neal told police he saw the child and attempted to “assist [him] by grabbing [his] hand and pulling him,” documents said.
Neal was due in court on Wednesday. A judge previously set bail at $50,000 in Neal’s now-closed Las Vegas Justice Court case.
In Neal’s 2016 case, he entered an Alford plea – meaning he accepted prosecutors had enough evidence to sway a jury – for sexually assaulting a child whom he knew, documents said. Neal’s original charges were amended to two counts of coercion sexually motivated.
In 2016, Clark County District Court Judge Carolyn Ellsworth sentenced Neal to a year to five years to prison. Neal later appealed his judgment of conviction, which the Nevada State Supreme Court denied.