DALLAS — A Dallas County grand jury decided this week not to indict a man who was arrested and accused of reportedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl after leaving with her from a Dallas Mavericks game.
Emanuel Cartagena, 33, was arrested by U.S. Marshals in January and charged with sex assault of a child. He was released on bond in March.
The accusations against Cartagena were linked to an incident that occurred in April 2022.
A 15-year-old girl went missing from a Dallas Mavericks game she was attending with her dad. Surveillance footage later showed the teen in the concourse of American Airlines Center and outside of the arena with unidentified men. Eleven days after her disappearance, she was recovered from a sex trafficking ring by police in Oklahoma City.
While eight people in Oklahoma have been arrested, charged and sentenced for their involvement in trafficking the teen, her parents have expressed frustration about the lack of arrests in Dallas. They believe, based on the information they've received from the teen, that there are people responsible for luring her from the arena and facilitating the process of getting her to Oklahoma.
Dallas police accused Cartagena of luring the teen from the arena and sexually assaulting her at a home in Dallas before she was moved to Oklahoma.
On Monday, a grand jury no-billed Cartagena based on the evidence they were presented, so he will not face criminal prosecution for this incident.
