Man Accused of Luring 10-Year-Old Girl Into His Apartment One of 3 Child Abuse Arrests in 3 Days

Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. sheriff’s deputies responded to a vehicle crash at 287 Underwood Trail in Palm Coast. A Volkswagen Passat had crashed and become partially submerged in a swale, all four of its airbags deployed. The crash had damaged a nearby sewer grate and cement barrier. The Volkswagen had sustained severe damage to its front.

Sarah McAllister, 31, of Underwood Trail in Palm Coast , was still in the driver’s seat. Her 6-year-old daughter was in a booster seat in the car, and was treated at the scene by a Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedics. A deputy instructed McAllister several times to exit the vehicle. She was reluctant, according to the deputy’s report. When she finally did, the deputy concluded she’d been drinking. There were several mini-liquor bottles on the front passenger seat, in plain view, and small banana rum and vodka bottles in the passenger door compartment. A small bottle of vodka fell out of McAllister’s jacket pocket as she spoke with the deputy.

She had been gone to Walmart and back –on a suspended license. She told a deputy she’d started drinking at 11:30 that morning. The bottles were in the car because her family doesn’t like her drinking in the house, she told a deputy. She said she’d drank the bottles before going to the store, but hadn’t done so since.

She failed the field sobriety exercises, and later provided two alcohol-breath samples, which tested at .208 percent. The legal limit for blood alcohol concentration in Florida is 0.08 percent.

McAllister was charged with DUI with property damage, a first-degree misdemeanor, and child neglect, a third-degree felony. She was booked at the county jail on a $5,500 bond early Wednesday morning and released that evening.

The third case originated from an incident last July, though the warrant for the suspect’s arrest wasn’t signed until Wednesday. That evening, a Bunnell police officer saw the suspect, L.O., 55, drive up to a Dollar General in Bunnell, and executed the warrant for aggravated child abuse, among other charges.

The alleged victim is 10 years old. She told an officer last July that she had been riding her skateboard in front of her apartment building when a man asked her if she wanted to go into his home and offered her a glass of water. “I just want to do something nice for you,” she said the man told her. When he asked a second time, she agreed. The man showed her his exercise equipment, including a large yoga ball, which the girl got on. When she did so, the man touched her back. She said he got down on his knees by her side “and with his hand began to rub her from lower back all the way to her upper back,” according to the arrest report. “While the male rubbed her back, he began rubbing underneath the back strap of her bra which made [her] feel very uncomfortable.”

The girl said she told the man she had to go home. But when she was trying to leave the apartment, he allegedly wrapped his hands around her waist from behind, temporarily restricting her freedom to leave. She wiggled herself free and was able to run off. Days later the man saw her again as he was taking out the trash and asked her if she wanted to take the trash out with him. She refused. The girl’s grandmother reported seeing the man driving his truck by her building, looking for her grandchild.

They described the man to police, as well as his vehicle, telling them he lived in Building 9 in the Palm Pointe complex.

Police tried to make contact with L.O. at his apartment but no one came to the door. A day later, patrolling the complex, they noticed L.O., who noticed them. He went into his apartment and told police he was not answering his door, claiming he did not have clothes on, and that he was feeling sick. He told police to contact his landlord. A few days later, police officers conducted a photo line-up in the girl’s kitchen. She identified L.O..

Officers again tried to meet with L.O., this time going through the landlord. At his door, an officer asked him if a little girl had ever gone to his apartment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told them, standing at the entrance. Was the girl lying, they asked? “I don’t know,” Occhilupo said. But the girl described elements and furniture inside the apartment as only someone who’d been in there could, going as far as sketching out a drawing of the workout equipment within. While officers had not gone into the house when speaking with Occhilupo, they’d glimpsed inside and caught sight of the layout.

On Tuesday, the State Attorney’s Office charged L.O. with a count of felony child abuse and a battery count, signaling its decision to prosecute. L.O. was booked at the county jail that evening on $4,500 bond. He was released the next day.

Meyling Yaoska Green, a 29-year-old resident of Karat Path in Palm Coast, was booked at the jail early Thursday morning on a charge of felony child abuse and domestic battery after her 6-year-old daughter and her 58-year-old husband reported being allegedly assaulted by her.

Green’s daughter reported to a sheriff’s deputy that her mother had “drug her by the left arm out of the play room,” grabbing her hair as well, because she was mad at her dad. The girl “made a statement regarding her mother being mean and she now hates her for hurting her and scaring her,” according to the deputy’s report.

Her husband “had visible cuts and scratches to both of his arms which were bleeding” when he answered the door, and redness on his chest and back from being struck. His 6-year-old daughter was with him, crying. The house was in disarray, with broken glass, pieces of a broken door and spilled water on the floor, along with a trail of blood from the garage area to the master bedroom.

Green’s husband described his wife as “acting crazy,” destroying the house for reasons he could not figure out. He’d been walking from the garage to the bedroom, holding his daughter, when his wife allegedly attacked him. He managed to lock himself up in his bedroom, with his daughter. Green kept banging on the door with a mug, punching two large holes.

Green described the incident much as her husband had, but said the reason she was upset was because he was in the garage talking on the phone to another woman, she believed. She said she struck the door with the mug to try to get in, gather belongings and leave.

Green was booked on $1,750 bond and released 20 hours later. But she could likely not go home: she faces a no-contact order regarding her husband and child pending the resolution of the case. Her arraignment before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins is on June 22.