Kayla R. Lena being arrested for allegedly groping young boys at the Eagle Harbor Aquatic Center in Oklahoma (KWTV).
A 28-year-old woman in Oklahoma has been arrested and accused of groping two kids at a public pool then allegedly telling police that she only grabbed the children because she was trying to save herself from drowning. Kayla R. Lena was taken into custody and charged with two counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child under age 16, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to court documents filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County, it is alleged that Lena on June 30, 2024, “knowingly and intentionally looked upon, touched, mauled, or felt the body or private parts” of two boys, ages 12 and 13, “in a lewd and lascivious manner calculated to arouse and excite.”
The alleged incident took place at the Eagle Harbor Aquatic Center in the 4500 block of 1/2 SE 15th Street, about 6 miles east of Oklahoma City.
Specifically, the criminal information states that Lena did so by “touching and grabbing” the victims inappropriately while “moaning” and “calling [the boys] Daddy.”
“According to the victims, they stated while they were in the pool that the suspect grabbed them inappropriately, made several inappropriate statements to them, and then at one point also attempted to remove some of their clothing, exposing them out into the public area,” Del City Police Public Information Officer Maj. Brad Cowden said in a news briefing posted online by Oklahoma City Fox affiliate KOKH.
Authorities say that statements from the two victims and other witnesses at the pool indicate that Lena had targeted the same two victims on multiple occasions over several days.
“In talking to the victims, they stated that it did occur on more than one occasion, over multiple days involving the same suspect and victims, but there were no witnesses to it from the previous instances, and it was reported on that day and we obviously had a lot of witnesses that observed it at that time,” he said.
The lifeguards on duty at the time told police that Lena appeared to follow the victims around the pool and was seen “touching them in the groin and buttocks,” per Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV. The lifeguards immediately removed Lena from the facility, which is where police responding to a 911 call from the victims found her waiting.
Body camera footage of the arrest posted by KWTV showed Lena initially denied doing anything wrong before asking if she could call her grandmother.
“She denied doing any of the things that people had observed her doing, or that were alleged to have occurred,” Cowden said. “She did state at one point that she did grab one of the juveniles, but it was because she thought she was drowning and was going to use the juvenile to pull herself up.”
But Cowden said that the story Lena provided to police “did not match any of the stories the victims gave or stories from the witnesses.”
Lena was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond. She was no longer in detention as of Thursday, online records show.
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