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Transient Ordered to Stand Trial : Courts: Man is accused of attempted rape with a 15-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome who had been the object of a search.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

She called him “Mister Senor,” told police that he was her boyfriend and that they spent the night together in his van, according to police testimony Tuesday at his preliminary hearing.

He told police that she was “a very experienced woman” who had “latched on” to him in the park the afternoon of July 18. He said he didn’t think that they’d done anything wrong, an officer testified.

But, on the grounds that she is 15, has an IQ of about 50 and doesn’t understand the concept of consensual sex, Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip H. Rabichow alleges that what Guillermo Ayon did July 18 with a teen-ager with Down’s syndrome is attempted rape.

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Ayon, a 37-year-old transient who lived in a van he usually kept near a park in Van Nuys, faces a dozen years in state prison if convicted of attempting to rape a person incapable of giving consent.

After hearing testimony from Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Peloquin, Van Nuys Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers ordered Ayon held for trial on charges of attempted rape and oral copulation. Rape and child-concealing charges were dismissed.

The teen-ager was the object of a highly publicized search after she wandered away from her home in Woodland Hills. More than 90 people participated in the 24-hour search and more than 1,300 leaflets bearing her likeness were distributed along Ventura Boulevard.

She was found when a security guard at the Van Nuys production offices of the TV teen soap opera “Beverly Hills 90210” recognized her and separated her from Ayon after they asked directions to nearby Delano Park.

Actress Tori Spelling, who was at the office, spent about an hour with the girl before her parents arrived, authorities said. It was unclear whether Spelling would be called as a witness in the case.

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