A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy has been arrested after an investigation into allegations of off-duty sexual misconduct.
On Monday, March 23, 2026, detectives from the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit (SVU) and the Human Exploitation and Trafficking team (HEAT) arrested Darin Van Arsdale, a 34-year-old resident of Lancaster, California on three felony counts related to
exploitation of a minor. Van Arsdale was booked into the Stanislaus County Jail and is being held on a $300,000 bail.
He faces the following charges:
• One felony count of attempted lewd or lascivious actions with a minor.
• One felony count of harmful matter sent to a minor with intent to seduce.
• One felony count of communicating with a minor with intent to commit lewd acts.
The investigation began on March 18, 2026, when Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a runaway juvenile. During the investigation, deputies located the juvenile and returned her home. She reported engaging in inappropriate sexual conversations online with an adult male who knew her age and had requested and received inappropriate photographs from her. This adult male reached out to the juvenile victim first via a social media application.
On March 23, 2026, SVU and HEAT detectives conducted a planned operation and took Van Arsdale into custody in Calabasas, California, without incident. He was transported to Stanislaus County and booked into the Public Safety Center without further incident. This case remains
under active investigation. Due to victim confidentiality, no further identifying information will be released at this time.
Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact Detective Cooper at (209) 525-7114 or submit an anonymous tip to Stanislaus Area Crime Stoppers at (866) 602-7463.
