Parolee charged with sexual battery of Berkeley shop clerk
Police say Lamonte Campbell walked around the counter and grabbed the woman tightly from behind, touching her private areas.
A parolee who groped a woman working alone in a shop on Shattuck Avenue and made lewd remarks to her during the encounter has been charged with sexual battery by restraint, court papers show.
The incident, which was captured on surveillance video, happened Saturday afternoon, Berkeley police said in response to a Berkeley Scanner inquiry this week.
The man, Lamonte Campbell, left his apartment at Hillside Village, at 1801 Shattuck Ave., and walked into a nearby business at about 2:30 p.m., according to court papers.
Campbell, 28, was alone with the woman for several minutes before he walked around the counter and grabbed her tightly from behind, touching her breasts and buttocks, according to court papers.
While they were alone in the shop, police wrote, Campbell also told the woman he wanted her to orally copulate him.
Eventually, BPD wrote in charging papers, the woman was able to break free and run outside to call police.
Campbell fled from the scene, police said, but an officer who reviewed the case that day put out a notice to the department advising colleagues to be on the lookout for him.
Emilie Raguso
The next evening, a different Berkeley police officer spotted Campbell and detained him on Shattuck Avenue five blocks south of his apartment, according to court papers.
The shop clerk identified Campbell as the man who groped her, Berkeley police said.
Lamonte Campbell. BPD
Campbell has prior arrests related to robbery, carjacking and indecent exposure, among other crimes, according to charging papers.
He is on parole for home burglary and was sent to prison for that crime in 2016, court papers show. He was also convicted of vehicle theft and felony evasion, which happened the same day as the burglary.
On Tuesday, the Alameda County district attorney's office charged Campbell with sexual battery by restraint, which is a felony, according to charging papers.
He was set for arraignment Wednesday morning.
As of Wednesday evening, Campbell remained in custody without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, according to booking records online.
His next court date was not listed as of publication time.
