Acting on a tip from California authorities, Grand Forks police have arrested a man wanted on multiple sexual abuse charges.
Anthony Brian Foster, 33, is charged with eight felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and ongoing sexual abuse of a child, stemming from a case reportedly involving a victim under 14 years old, said Cmdr. Dave Putnam with the Kings County Sheriff's Office in central California.
Putnam said the crimes were reported in March and are alleged to have occurred in June 2007 in Lemoore, Calif. Foster left Kings County before a prosecutor filed charges in the case, he said.
Putnam said his office plans to pickup Foster in the coming days and fly him back to California to face charges.
Lt. Grant Schiller said Kings County tipped police that Foster was living at the Northlands Rescue Mission in Grand Forks. Police didn't find Foster there, but learned he was living in a downtown apartment and working at Wal-Mart. With that information, officers were able to arrest Foster outside his apartment Wednesday.
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Schiller said he did not know how long Foster, who was born in Washington State, had been living in the area or if he'd had other run-ins with area law enforcement.
In searching records on the North Dakota Supreme Court Web site, Foster's name only appears once for being arrested on this California warrant.
Putnam said records show that Foster had contact with the Kings County Sheriff's Office going back to 1992. He was convicted of stealing vehicles in 1993 and 1994, but has not been convicted of any sex offenses in California.
His name did not turn up in searches of the sex offender registries for Washington state, California and North Dakota, which list the names of high-risk offenders.
Foster is being held on $250,000 bail at the Grand Forks County jail, according to a jail spokesman.
Ingersoll reports on crime and courts. Reach him at (701) 780-1269; (800) 477-6572, ext. 269; or send e-mail to aingersoll@gfherald.com .
