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MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — McAllen police arrested a woman accused of attempting to sell a 12-year-old girl for sex, court records show.
Norma Ramirez Tapia, from Peñitas, was arrested on charges of compelling prostitution under age 18, according to Hidalgo County records.
An offense report obtained by ValleyCentral details how an officer was dispatched to the 2900 block of Colbath Avenue in reference to a “suspicious circumstance.” The caller told dispatchers that a woman was “sex trafficking a young female,” the report stated.
The officer made contact with the witness at Escandon Elementary who said he saw an older woman and a child at Escandon Park and believed they were “prostituting themselves,” the offense report stated. He told police that the older woman and child made hand motions indicating they were offering sex services for money.
The officer then went to the park where he saw a woman, younger female child and a vehicle that came back to Tapia, the document stated.
Authorities made contact with the witness again who said he goes to the park nearly every day and began noticing the older woman three days prior.
The witness told police that they never approached his vehicle but “it was clear the hand motions gestured oral sex and were directed to him” and the woman did a gesture pointing to herself and the child, offering him to pick, the document alleges.
The woman made a gesture of five fingers on one hand and zero on the other, indicating a price of $50, the witness told authorities. He told police he then went to a friend’s house to ask her to beat up the woman because of the offer, and when they returned the two were gone.
On the day he called dispatch, he said he saw the woman and child again. He stated the woman and child approached a van, and he pulled out to record what was happening but stopped because he felt that he was noticed, the police document stated.
The officer made contact with Tapia and the child, and the woman told police she brought the child to the park to “play and eat a raspa,” police stated.
She was transported to the McAllen Police Department, and investigators said that Tapia was providing “conflicting statements,” the document stated.
One of the investigators spoke with the child, who said she was “doing something she was not suppose to be doing at the park” and that she did not feel comfortable saying what they were doing, the document stated.
Tapia was then placed under arrest on a charge of compelling prostitution. Her bond was set at $100,000.
Child Protective Services was contacted and a relative took custody of the child, the document stated.