An 18-year-old Belmont resident accused of taking inappropriate photos of a 7-year-old girl while working at a children’s play place in Belmont is facing seven additional felony charges after a 14-year-old girl stepped forward alleging the teen sexually assaulted her over nearly three months, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Tavi Benelli allegedly met the 14-year-old through mutual friends and maintained a sexual relationship with her starting Jan. 1 and ending March 28. Charged with multiple counts of oral copulation with a minor and digital penetration with a minor in addition to lewd acts with a child, possession of child pornography and using a minor for sexual gratification for an April 1 incident with a 7-year-old girl, Benelli pleaded not guilty to all of his charges Thursday, according to prosecutors.
Benelli was allegedly working at the Pump It Up Bounce House when he encountered a girl who had come to the birthday party venue at 1303 Elmer St. with her nanny April 1. He allegedly approached the girl saying she had a scratch and they would find a Band-Aid for her before taking her to another room, according to prosecutors.
Benelli allegedly told her to turn around and jump up and down, and as the girl followed his directions she saw he was taking photos of her. When she asked him what he was doing, Benelli allegedly told her to turn around again before telling her there was a dead bug on her butt and brushing it off, according to prosecutors.
The girl allegedly left the room and immediately told her nanny about the incident, who called police. When San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies arrived around noon, Benelli had left the business but came back when the owners called him, according to prosecutors.
Benelli allegedly tried to delete some photos on his phone when the deputies asked to see it, and the deputies allegedly found photos of the girl from behind among the phone’s deleted photos, according to prosecutors.
Out of custody on a $350,000 bail bond, Benelli will next appear in court July 11 for preliminary hearing, according to prosecutors.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.