Man Faces Teen Sex Charges

A man who fled to Mexico with a 14-year-old girl last month sexually assaulted the teen, authorities said.

Daniel A. Elliott was charged Monday with 2nd-degree sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual contact. He already had been charged with luring.

Elliott, 43, and the girl, the daughter of a family friend, disappeared Aug. 29, just before she was to start high school classes.

Authorities tracked down the pair in Porgeso, a beach town in southern Mexico where Elliott had rented a house. He was arrested there Sept. 15.

Just before the two left, they put a note on his refrigerator saying they had been in love for two years and were going to run away, officials said. Authorities said the two had sex in Deptford, N.J., between the summers of 2003 and 2004.

Elliott moved to Deptford from Mantua Township after moving out of the home he shared with his wife and children.

Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the Gloucester County prosecutor, said there was no accusation that the sex between Elliott and the girl was forceable. He said the assault charge is akin to statutory rape.

NBC 10 News is not identifying the girl because of the sexual assault allegation.

"I don't know what to say," the girl's mother told The Philadelphia Inquirer in Tuesday's newspapers. "He subjected her to God knows what ... She was conditioned to listen to him and do whatever he said, I guess."

Elliott is being held on $1 million bail.

His mother told the newspaper that Elliott denied having sex with the girl.

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Author: NBC10/AP