According to Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies, a 20-year old Venezuelan man has been arrested after being accused of inappropriately touching an 8-year-old boy on Test Track at Epcot.
The alleged incident happened Saturday evening. The boy and his mother were in line for the attraction, when a large group allowed them to go ahead of them in line. The attraction has room for three guests in each row, so the pair were seated next to the man, Arturo Benitez-Pita.
According to the mother, Benitez-Pita chatted throughout the ride, asking questions about the ride and commenting on how “‘beautiful’ her son was.”
At one point during the ride, he put his arm across the boy’s chest, “as if to protect him.” The report says that he also put his hand on the boy’s knee, then put his hand on the boy’s groin. At that point, the mother pushed away the man’s hand.
The mother called the authorities after the incident.
According to Benitez-Pita, any touching was accidental. He even wrote the boy a note to ask for forgiveness following the incident.
Benitez-Pita was arrested for lewd or lascivious molestation on a victim under 12 and is being held on $10,000 bail.
Sources: WFTV / Orlando Sentinel
