PALM BEACH, Fla. — A manager of a Palm Beach restaurant is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old employee from January until this month.
Juan Carlos Trujillo, 54, of West Palm Beach and the manager of PB Catch, was arrested Thursday. He has since been suspended.
He is facing 13 charges: sexual assault, child abuse, three counts of indecent lewd or lascivious touching of a minor, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and four counts of selling, giving or serving alcohol to a person under 21 years old.
On April 17, investigators say he forced the 16-year-old girl to get drunk before she was allowed to leave the restaurant, according to the police report. She crashed her vehicle on Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.
She was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach with an initial blood alcohol content of .248. The teen had bruises around her hips and other areas. Based on statements she made regarding self-harm, she was Baker Acted and taken to Coral Shores Medical Center in Stuart, police said.
She told investigators she was provided alcohol by Trujillo and he would not let her leave the restaurant until she was drunk "in the hopes that he would have sex with him," according to the arrest report. In addition, she said Trujillo had "touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions, and she always had to convince him to stop."
Detectives learned in January, Trujillo attempted to keep her in the manager's office against her will.
She told investigators she had kept the sexual advances private, "as she feared that her boyfriend, friends and family members would not want to be with her," according to the police report.
Trujillo is in the Palm Beach County jail without bond. His next court hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. May 28.
