Hollygrove man, 47, accused of raping a pre-teen girl

A 47-year-old Hollygrove man who fled to California after a 10-year-old girl told her school counselor that he had been raping her for the previous two years has been arrested, extradited back to New Orleans and indicted by a grand jury, Orleans Parish prosecutors said.

Michael Vanwhalraven was indicted Thursday, April 26, on charges of first-degree rape of a victim under age 13, sexual battery of a victim under 13, and indecent behavior with a juvenile under 13 by an Orleans Parish grand jury, according to a news release from District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office.

Last April, a 10-year-old girl told her school counselor, NOPD detectives and a forensic interviewer from the Child Advocacy Center that Vanwhalraven had been sexually abusing her between September 2014 and March 2017 at his Apricot Street home, starting when she was 8 years old, Cannizzaro’s office said. He left Louisiana, but U.S. Marshals arrested him Dec. 14, 2017, in Modesto, Calif., and he was subsequently extradited back to Orleans Parish and booked into jail, the report states.

Assistant District Attorney Payal Patel presented the case against Vanwhalraven to the grand jury, the report states. Criminal District Judge Robin Pittman raised his bond from $200,000 to $2 million after the grand jury’s indictment.