A California Highway Patrol officer was arrested in connection with the rape and continuous sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in Northern California, authorities said Thursday.
Michael Joslin, 35, became the subject of investigation after sheriff’s officials in Amador County received “a troubling call” from the victim’s pastor Sunday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The pastor told deputies the girl’s mother recently found out her daughter had been molested, and the mother said the suspect was employed as a CHP officer.
After conducting interviews, detectives determined the girl had been sexually abused for about one year.
They also identified Joslin as a suspect. He is being accused of rape by means of force or fear, penetration with a foreign object of a minor under 14 by means of force or fear, oral copulation with a minor under 14 by means of force or fear, lewd acts with a child under 14 by means of force or fear and continuous sexual abuse of a child, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Later on Sunday, officials went to arrest Joslin. However, the suspect had left for his father’s house in neighboring Placer County before deputies arrived, authorities said.
At that point, deputies obtained an emergency protective order for the victim and her immediate family.
Placer County sheriff’s deputies assisted in locating Joslin in the town of Pioneer, in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Amador County, and taking him into custody on Monday.
Joslin no longer works for the CHP, according to sheriff’s officials. A CHP spokesman confirmed to the Associated Press that he was employed with the agency at the time of his arrest.
Another CHP representative told The Union Democrat he began working as an officer in 2007 and was stationed at three offices through his career: West Valley headquartered in Woodland Hills, West Sacramento and San Andreas.
Joslin was being held in the Amador County Jail without bail, inmate records show.