Sex Offender Charged With Attacking Girl, 6, On School Playground

TORRANCE, CA – A registered sex offender was charged Wednesday with committing a forcible lewd act on a 6-year-old girl on an elementary school playground in Torrance.

Dalan Johnson, 31, of Los Angeles, is set to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in a Torrance courtroom. He is accused of attacking the girl last Thursday at Lincoln Elementary School.

The criminal complaint alleges that Johnson has prior convictions from 2015 for lewd act upon a child under 14 and 2016 for indecent exposure with a prior lewd act conviction, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Johnson was allegedly on parole and wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the alleged attack, according to Deputy District Attorney Parag Agrawal.

The girl reported the attack to one of her parents at the end of the school day and her parent informed the Torrance Unified School District, which contacted police, according to Torrance police Sgt. Ronald Harris.

The school district worked with police and the school's resource officer and reviewed surveillance video, which determined the suspect was on campus for less than a minute, Harris said.

Johnson was arrested last Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, with officers subsequently discovering he was on parole.

If convicted as charged, he could face a potential life prison term without the possibility of parole, according to the District Attorney's Office.

City News Service