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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 and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl is facing up to three years in state prison Wednesday after he pleaded no contest to felony lewd act with a child, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Tavi Benelli was charged in April 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 at the Pump It Up Bounce House in Belmont. He faced seven additional felony charges after a 14-year-old girl stepped forward in May alleging the teen sexually assaulted her over four months after they met through mutual friends, according to prosecutors previously.
In custody on $350,000 bail, Benelli is slated to be sentenced Nov. 1, according to prosecutors.
Benelli was 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. He is said to have 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 is believed to have 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 told her to turn around again before telling her there was a dead bug on her butt and brushing it off, according to prosecutors.
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The girl is said to have 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 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.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said he was pleased to hear Benelli admitted his culpability and noted the plea deal also prevented the victim from having to talk about what happened to her in court.
“Mr. Benelli is a young man, hopefully his deviance can be overcome with counseling and treatment,” he said. “Hopefully he will learn from it and it will never repeat itself.”
Benelli’s defense attorney Jonathan McDougall was not immediately available for comment.
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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.