BY LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTROZ
STAFF WRITER
Indictments were handed down for two Louisiana men accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor girl from McAllen in June of this year, records show.
On Nov. 5, a federal grand jury handed down indictments for Jose Ramos-Serrano, 23, and Brandon Galvez, 22, both of Louisiana.
They face one kidnapping, and three coercion of a minor charges between them related to their attempt to take without their guardians’ permission a 13-year-old girl from McAllen back to Louisiana in June of this year.
Galvez, who faces the kidnapping and two enticement charges, along with Ramos-Serrano, are accused of traveling with the girl on their way back to Louisiana earlier this year in June after the girl allegedly ran away from home.
Local police, during a news conference related to the arrest of the defendants, said the 13-year-old girl had run away from home, leaving a note for her parents sometime before the morning of June 21. The parents reported the note and her disappearance that morning, police said.
Police added that they believed the girl met one of the men via social media that same weekend.
The indictment states Galvez may have been in communication with the girl as early as June 12, a little more than a week before the girl was reported missing.
Police said the girl may have been under the impression that the men were taking her to Mexico but in fact were taking her to Louisiana, where the men were from.
Eventually, later that day, U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped the men at the Falfurrias checkpoint, police said at the time. Galvez and Ramos-Serrano were also arraigned on state kidnapping and sexual assault charges.
Both men were expected to make their respective initial appearances before a federal magistrate judge Thursday.
