A convicted sex offender on parole was charged Tuesday with attempted extortion for allegedly offering to return a lost dog to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for money or sex.
Alfredo Jaime Dempkey, 27, of Lancaster, pleaded not guilty to the felony charge.
Hawthorne Police Lt. Mike Ishii said Monday that Dempkey found the girl's 2-year-old mutt Pineapple on Friday, called the number listed on the collar and said the dog would suffer if she didn't give him $70 or sexual favors, the Daily Breeze reported:
"At first I was, 'OK, someone's found my dog,' the girl said. "But then when he asked for money and when he said if I didn't have money he wanted something else, I got scared. He asked for sex."
He also threatened to torture the dog if she didn't give in to his demands. He told her he would "make (the dog) suffer," she said.
"I started crying," she said. "He said, `If you don't want to do anything or if you don't want to give up money, I guess you don't want your dog."
Police say the girl hung up on Demkey, but he called back. She then agreed to meet him at an El Pollo Loco restaurant.
"(Dempkey) was there with the dog, but the victim's father and police met the suspect," Ishii told the Daily Breeze. "He was arrested and the dog was returned to the owner."
According to the criminal complaint, Dempkey was convicted in July 2003 of forcible oral copulation and criminal threats and that he was on parole when he was arrested Friday.
