Authorities sought public help Monday identifying possible victims of two convicted sex offenders who are accused of molesting an underage girl at an El Cajon motel where one of them had been placed in temporary housing through San Diego County’s Community Care Coordination Straight to Home Program.
Lawrence "Larry" Cantrell, 34, told police last Friday that his friend Michael Inman, 70, brought what appeared to be an underage girl to the Motel 6. Cantrell said the girl repeatedly told him she was an adult, but he suspected she was a minor. He told police he sexually assaulted and molested the girl and then engaged in sexual activity with Inman. Cantrell found a sexually explicit video of Inman with the same young girl on Inman’s phone. Cantrell forwarded the video to his own phone and then turned it over to police.
El Cajon Police Lt. Jeremiah Larson said the department reviewed the video and believes the girl in the video is a minor, but they haven’t been able to locate or identify her yet.
“One of the suspects also stated in an interview with police that they had potential sexual contact with several other minors over the course of the last week and there were two to three additional victims,” Lt. Larson said.
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Cantrell originally reported the misconduct to a PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) employee. PATH is a nonprofit that runs several programs through contracts with San Diego County and the State of California. Cantrell was identified as a client of a PATH program. PATH runs the hotel voucher program for the homeless, but a San Diego County spokesperson said that the Motel 6 in El Cajon is not used for the hotel voucher program for homeless people
Cantrell was part of the Community Care Coordination Straight to Home Program which connects justice-involved people to services in their community, according to the spokesperson. Cantrell had ties to El Cajon and that’s why he was placed in that hotel, the spokesperson said.
Cantrell had been at the Motel 6 for five to six days after he had gotten kicked out from a previous hotel in San Diego for causing a disturbance. He had a GPS ankle bracelet. The Motel 6 that he was staying at was within three-quarters of a mile from Johnson Elementary School and Cajon Valley Middle School. The county spokesperson said they are examining the scope of these programs to see if there needs to be any changes.
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Inman was also part of the Community Care Coordination Program for Veterans. Inman was a state parolee who had been convicted and charged with several counts of indecent exposure and lewd and lascivious acts with minors.
Cantrell was arrested on suspicion of drug-related offenses, while Inman was booked on suspicion of a parole violation and possession of child pornography. Police asked anyone who may have been victimized or has any additional information to contact the ECPD at 619-579-3311.
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, who has been a vocal critic of the County’s hotel voucher program for the homeless, says he was infuriated that Cantrell ended up in El Cajon.
“You can call it whatever you want, it really doesn’t matter to me who paid the bill, what matters to me is the county is bringing these dangerous people into our city,” Wells said.
When asked where he thinks registered sex offenders should be allowed to live, Wells said, “I gotta be honest, I don’t care. Not my problem, figure it out, spend whatever money you have to spend to keep people safe, but don’t send them to my city.”
