Nicholas Donovan
A 21-year-old man Metro Police say trapped a boy inside the bathroom of a west valley store in November was booked Thursday on a count of lewdness with a child under 14.
Nicholas Donovan’s arrest came the same day Metro publicly released store surveillance photos in an attempt to identify a person of interest in the Nov. 24 incident.
Jail and Las Vegas Justice Court records show that Donovan has been on house arrest since January on an unrelated count of luring a child or mentally ill person into sex. As a condition of his release from jail, he was ordered not to have any contact with juveniles, according to court records.
A lawyer for Donovan said his client is mentally disabled.
Las Vegas attorney Gary Guymon said Donovan has been in treatment since a young age and "will continue to be treated all his life for his mental disabilities."
He declined further comment.
In the most recent incident, the boy and a family member were shopping about 10 p.m. at the store in the 8700 block of West Charleston Boulevard when the child went into the bathroom, police said.
As they were leaving the store, the boy said a man had “detained him in the restroom and would not allow him to leave,” according to a police report. The family member went back into the store to report the incident to employees, but the suspect was not found, police said.
Three days later, the boy’s family reported the incident to Metro, which obtained surveillance photos of the suspect, police said. Police on Thursday released the photos, but information about how Donovan was identified was not immediately available.
In the previous case, Donovan was placed on house arrest Jan. 17 in connection with a Nov. 2 incident, according to court records. No details about the incident were immediately available.
Release conditions for Donovan, who was placed under “medium-level electronic monitoring,” included that he could not contact anyone under 18 years old and could not leave his house unless accompanied by his mother or grandparents, court records show.
He was also ordered to seek medical attention and have no computer access “until defendant sees a doctor and further order from the court,” records state.
Donovan was being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.