49-year-old Eric Daniel Prindle of Bakersfield was arrested and booked into the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, CA this week. He is charged with suspicion of annoying or molesting a minor and public intoxication.
The California Highway Patrol says, the 16-year-old victim was riding a Greyhound from Phoenix back home to Los Angeles when she encountered Prindle. As the bus traveled through Riverside County on Monday night, “Prindle harassed and annoyed the victim inappropriately for approximately an hour, until she was able to discreetly send a text message to a family member for help,” said Officer Darren Meyer, a CHP spokesman. The family member then contacted law enforcement.
The charges against Prindle stem from him harassing and touching a minor, and being under the influence of a controlled substance. The substance, unsurprisingly, was meth.
“He did touch her,” Meyer said on Tuesday. “It’s pretty scary stuff.”
Prindle was out on parole from a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. Meyer said this arrest could scuttle his parole, sending Prindle back to prison.
One day after being arrested Prindle was released on a $5,000 bond.
