MARION COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
Kris Diel says her 7-year-old daughter was simply playing outside Tuesday afternoon when she noticed a blue car driving by. Her daughter says she told the driver, Manuel Valentin, she liked his car.
"She said that he approached her in the vehicle, she couldn't remember everything that was said. she said she didn't want to go with him," Kris said.
She did. According to the police report, Valentin said he was in the neighborhood looking for a woman to perform sexual acts. He said the little girl offered to show him where that woman lived.
A few minutes later he dropped the girl off near her home, that's when the park managers say they saw the girl stumble out of Valentin's car and called 911.
Diel says, "I don't know what to do. me and my husband haven't slept all night, I mean we're trying to deal with all of this."
Deputies say Valentin admitted to driving around with the girl, but said he had no ill intentions. The girl said Valentin never sexually touched her or made advances, but she told us he touched her arm and her leg. She also says Valentin told her "when she grows up he wants to be her boyfriend."
Deputies say Valentin also had marijuana in his car when they arrested him. Valentine was in the Marion County Jail as of late Wednesday night on $105,000 bond.
