A 28-year-old woman in Oklahoma was arrested and accused of touching two toddlers at a public pool before allegedly telling police that she grabbed the youngsters to keep herself from drowning. Kayla R. Lena was arrested and charged with two counts of lewd or indecent acts against a minor under the age of 16, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.
According to court documents filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County, on June 30, 2024, Lena “knowingly and intentionally looked upon, touched, mauled, or felt the body or private parts” of two boys, ages 12 and 13, “in a lewd and lascivious manner calculated to arouse and excite.”
The claimed event occurred at the Eagle Harbor Aquatic Center in the 4500 block of 1/2 SE 15th Street, approximately 6 miles east of Oklahoma City.
According to the criminal information, Lena did so by “touching and grabbing” the victims inappropriately while “moaning” and “calling [the boys] Daddy.”
“According to the victims, while they were in the pool, the suspect grabbed them inappropriately, made several inappropriate statements to them, and then at one point attempted to remove some of their clothing, exposing them to the public,” Del City Police Public Information Officer Maj. Brad Cowden said in a news briefing posted online by Oklahoma City Fox affiliate KOKH.
Authorities said testimonies from the two victims and other witnesses at the pool show that Lena targeted the same two victims several times over several days.
“In talking to the victims, they stated that it did occur on more than one occasion, over multiple days involving the same suspect and victims, but there were no witnesses to it from the previous instances, and it was reported on that day and we had a lot of witnesses that observed it at that time,” said the judge.
Lifeguards on duty at the time informed police that Lena appeared to follow the victims around the pool and was spotted “touching them in the groin and buttocks,” according to Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV. The lifeguards promptly withdrew Lena from the facility, where police discovered her after receiving a 911 call from the victims.
Body camera footage of the arrest, aired by Lawandcrime, showed Lena initially denying any wrongdoing before wanting to phone her grandma.
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“She denied doing any of the things that people had observed her doing, or that were alleged to have occurred,” indicated Cowden. “She did state at one point that she did grab one of the juveniles, but it was because she thought she was drowning and was going to use the juvenile to pull herself up.”
However, Cowden stated that the tale Lena offered to police “did not match any of the stories the victims gave or stories from the witnesses.”
Lena was placed in the Oklahoma County Jail instead of a $100,000 bond. According to online records, she had been released from jail on Thursday.