A 57-year-old man is accused of groping a 13-year-old girl inside a Vancouver convenience store last month.
John David Hostetler, of Vancouver, appeared Friday via Zoom in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of second-degree child molestation.
Judge Daniel Stahnke set Hostetler’s bail at $50,000, court records show. He is set to be arraigned Friday.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, the girl was with her grandmother at 7-Eleven, 3200 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., on Jan. 14 when an unknown man grabbed the girl’s buttocks after rubbing his body on her back. The grandmother confronted the man, and he ran away.
Police later obtained video surveillance from the store, which captured the suspect and appeared to show him grabbing the girl from behind, saying something and walking away, the affidavit says.
The grandmother told police that when she confronted the man he did not deny touching her granddaughter. She said a friend also recognized the man as living in the friend’s apartment complex, court records state.
Police confirmed Hostetler lives in the apartment described by the grandmother’s friend, and the grandmother later picked him out of a group of photos.
The affidavit did not include details about Hostetler’s arrest. According to a jail pre-booking sheet, he has been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia.
