An active-duty Marine Corps recruiter was arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl at a recruiting center in California, according to the service and local law enforcement.
Sgt. Jorge Larapedroza was arrested Oct. 29, a day after he allegedly committed the assault in Sunnyvale, California, where he was booked for several crimes, including "oral copulation, penetration with a foreign object, and arranging to meet with a minor with the intent to engage in sexual conduct," according to a news release from the city's public safety department.
Larapedroza, originally from Virgina, met the alleged victim at a recruiting event at her school roughly a week prior to the reported assault, the news release said. A Marine Corps spokesperson said that he was relieved of his duties as a recruiter pending the completion of the investigation into his alleged misconduct.
"Marine Corps Recruiting Station San Francisco, part of the 12th Marine Corps District, was informed that Sgt. Jorge Larapedroza was taken into custody Oct. 29, 2024, on allegations of sexual assault," Capt. Tess LaBossiere, a spokesperson with the 12th Marine Corps District, told Military.com in an email Monday.
"The Marine Corps takes any allegations of misconduct very seriously and is cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities," she said. "We are concerned with any conduct that is not in keeping with military and civilian law, our core values, or that has the potential to violate public trust."
The news outlet SFGATE reported last week that the Marine was being held on a $245,000 bond.
Larapedroza enlisted into the Marine Corps in 2016 and served as an aircraft avionics technician, according to service records provided to Military.com. He has been stationed at Recruiting Station San Francisco since 2021.
The Department of Defense strictly prohibits recruiters from having inappropriate relationships with young people looking to join the service to prevent abuse by uniformed service members who are supposed to shepherd the next generation of troops into the military.
The arrest follows another Marine Corps case of recruiter misconduct after former Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Champagne, 37, was sentenced last month to a year in prison, reduction in rank, and a dishonorable discharge after he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a teenage recruit.
The family of the victim in that case said that Champagne groomed, sexually assaulted and abused the teenager for more than a year. Champagne penned a self-published "memoir," in part detailing his own inappropriate relationship with the recruit.
Related: Marine Recruiter Who Wrote 'Memoir' About Teenage Recruit Sentenced to Prison
