Shane Sparks, the award-winning hip-hop choreographer on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and a judge on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, was arrested early Friday in Los Angeles and charged with eight counts of felony child molestation.
The 40-year-old choreographer, real name Melvin Sparks, was taken into custody by detectives at 8am on Friday on a felony warrant.
Bruce Borihanh (Los Angeles Police Department spokesman): "Sparks has been the subject of an ongoing child-molestation investigation."
The investigation centers on a decade-old incident involving a teenager.
Jane Robison (Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman): "There's one victim, and it occurred in the '90s. I believe it started in '94 and went on for several years. It's an underage girl. She was under 15 when the alleged crimes occurred. She is an adult now and came forward to authorities."
The felony charges filed today against Sparks include six counts of committing a lewd act upon a child 14 years old or younger, and two counts of oral copulation of a person under 16 for acts committed between 1995 and 1997. If he's convicted, Sparks would have to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints for a national database of sex offenders (pursuant to California Penal Code Section 290).
Sparks pans to fight back against the charges.
Steve Meister (Sparks' attorney): "Shane Sparks is innocent, he knows it and soon the world will know it. We are going to fight this tooth and nail. It's a bogus accusation that reeks of opportunism and exploitation. The timing is beyond suspicious, and this whole thing stinks to high heaven. We are going to fight to clear his name, and we are going to succeed."
~Papi Chulo~
