{"id":139489,"date":"2026-02-01T08:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139489\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T08:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:47:24","slug":"lala-restaurant-founder-arrested-on-18-child-porn-charges-st-pete-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139489\/","title":{"rendered":"LALA restaurant founder arrested on 18 child porn charges, St. Pete police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The founder and managing partner of LALA, a local restaurant and karaoke bar, has been arrested in a child pornography investigation.<\/p>\n

Lucas Jose Herraiz, 42, was taken into custody Wednesday on 18 counts of possession of child pornography, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.<\/p>\n

Illegal gambling bust in Venice leads to woman\u2019s arrest, seizure of 66 slot machines <\/a><\/p>\n

Police said their investigation began after receiving a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. They then obtained a warrant and searched Herraiz\u2019s home and business.<\/p>\n

\"Lucas<\/p>\n

Lucas Jose Herraiz (Credit: St. Petersburg Police Department)<\/p>\n

Two electronic devices were seized from his home, and detectives said they discovered Herraiz had downloaded multiple videos of child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n

Herraiz\u2019s LinkedIn profile lists him as the founder and managing partner of LALA, a restaurant and karaoke bar with locations in St. Pete and Tampa.<\/p>\n

The business acknowledged the allegations in a statement posted on social media<\/a> Thursday night and said Herraiz is no longer involved in day-to-day operations and is not permitted on the premises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of recent news involving an individual associated with Lala St. Pete,\u201d the post read. \u201cThis information was unknown to the remaining ownership and has been as shocking to us as it has been to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the restaurant will be continuing to operate independently under its remaining ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the remaining owners had any prior knowledge of or involvement in the alleged conduct,\u201d the business wrote. \u201cThe company is working with legal counsel to address this matter appropriately and in accordance with applicable law. The safety, well-being, and respect of our staff, guests, and community remain our highest priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The founder and managing partner of LALA, a local restaurant and karaoke bar,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[67892,14676,67895,67893,67891,67894,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-139489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-child-pornography-investigation","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-karaoke-bar","tag-lala","tag-lucas-jose-herraiz","tag-managing-partner","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}