Youth pastor arrested after police find him in car with 13-year-old girl

A youth pastor in San Bernardino has been arrested after he was caught in the back of a car with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s officials said they found 24-year-old Yanhao Ren, who goes by Eric, in the back seat of the car with the Rowland Heights girl just before midnight Sunday. The car was parked off California 330.

Authorities were doing a welfare check on the vehicle when they made the discovery.

The girl and Ren told authorities that they had begun a sexual relationship in May, and detectives learned Ren and the girl had met in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties since then.

Ren was booked Monday morning on suspicion of multiple sexual crimes, including sex with a child under 14 and sodomy with a child under 14. He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

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