Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – David Antonio Lopez-Perez, 18, faces five adult felony charges after allegedly arranging a sexual encounter with a 12-year-old girl, exposing himself, touching her sexually and concealing her in the trunk of his car when he was 17.
At approximately 12:30 a.m. on August 30, an Alachua County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a report of a vehicle parked in an abandoned lot. The deputy found Lopez-Perez shirtless in the back seat. When he exited the vehicle, the deputy observed that he was not wearing shoes and that his pants zipper was down. A box of condoms was also visible on the front passenger seat.
According to the victim, she and Lopez-Perez exchanged text messages about him picking her up from her home to have sex. After she was told she could not leave, she said Lopez-Perez instructed her to sneak out and meet him. She reported that he picked her up, and the two stopped at Wawa for food and drinks before parking in a vacant lot in her neighborhood.
The victim said she and Lopez-Perez kissed before he removed her bra and began touching her sexually. She told him to stop and pushed him away, according to the report. She said Lopez-Perez then removed his pants, exposed himself and put on a condom with the intention of having sex. When he noticed the deputy’s vehicle, he allegedly lowered the back seat and told the victim to hide in the trunk. She said she crawled inside.
While Lopez-Perez was in custody at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, he reportedly asked to use the restroom. A search conducted before he entered did not find a condom, but the deputy wrote that Lopez-Perez “appeared to shuffle around his pants” before urinating. A condom was later reportedly found in the urinal, leading the deputy to conclude that it had been concealed in Lopez-Perez’s underwear.
[Editor’s note: The probable cause narrative in the arrest report identifies the victim as 12 at the time of the incident, which occurred on August 30, 2026. However, the section listing the victim’s information gives her age as 14.]
Lopez-Perez is charged with false imprisonment of a child younger than 13, lewd or lascivious molestation of a child, lewd or lascivious conduct for allegedly arranging to meet the victim for sex, lewd or lascivious exhibition and tampering with evidence. His criminal history was unavailable because records involving sexual crimes are not posted. Judge James Colaw ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on the State Attorney’s Office motion to keep him detained without bail through trial. If the motion is denied, bail will be set at that hearing.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
