Barstow Man Arrested for Drugging, Raping, and Attempting to Pimp Teen

BARSTOW – A 38-year-old Barstow man was arrested after allegedly drugging, raping and attempting to pimp a teen girl. The victim told authorities that she recently met Jonathan D. Griggs in the City of Victorville. Griggs became friendly with the 16-year-old teen and eventually convinced her, on March 27th to go with him to an undisclosed location. While there the teen was coerced into using illicit drugs and was sexually assaulted by Griggs.

The victim also told authorities that Griggs told her to prostitute herself in order to make money for him. When sending her to prostitute the girl walked away and called the police on Tuesday, March 18, 2017, at 3:38 p.m. Barstow officers responded to the girl’s location in the 300 block of West Main Street to conduct and interview as part of their investigation. The scene where the alleged sexual assault occurred was processed for evidence, which corroborated the victim’s account of the incident. Also, conducted was a photo lineup, during which time the victim positively identified Griggs as the suspect.

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Although detectives were not immediately able to locate Griggs, on Thursday, April 13, 2017, at around 2:35 p.m. detectives responded to a tip reporting that Griggs was in the 1900 block of Yosemite Court. As they arrived at the location they noticed Griggs getting into a parked vehicle, which subsequently began driving away. The vehicle stopped and Griggs exited the vehicle and ran into a home in the 1900 block of Yosemite Court. Detectives went to the home to search for Griggs and located him hiding inside a bathroom.

Griggs was arrested and taken to the Barstow station for an interview. He was then booked into the High Desert Detention Center for rape and oral copulation of a minor. Griggs was found to be held on Post Release Community Supervision for a previous conviction and is being held without bail. He is scheduled to appear at the Victorville Superior Court on Monday afternoon.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation may contact Detective Peter D’Andrea at 760-255-5183 or at the Barstow Police Department at (760) 256-2211. Those wishing to remain anonymous may also report criminal activity by calling the WE-Tip hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME or may leave information on the We-Tip website at www.wetip.com.