Anderson Price, 42, is brought into Washington County District Court on second-degree sexual assault and enticement of a child charges yesterday.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

It was just a matter of minutes between when Gail Lawrence last checked on her daughter and when she says a man tried to pull the 15-year-old into a van.

Her daughter was approached Wednesday night by a man police identified as Anderson Price, 42, as she brought laundry in from the car on Lenox Court in North Kingstown around 8:10 p.m.

“It just happened so quickly,” says Lawrence, who was inside doing the dishes at the time. “Every time I looked out there, it was just the kids. It happened in a split second.”

The police say Price is listed as a violent sexual predator with the National Crime Information Center and was convicted of rape in Georgia. He’s accused of trying to entice the teenage girl to get into a van with him and two other men.

In her statement, the teenager said Price put his arm around her and offered her an ATM card. He was walking her to the van, she said, and grabbing her breast. She said she felt that Price — who is 6-foot, 4-inches tall and 240 pounds — was forcing her to go with him, according to the police.

The girl’s friends saw what was happening, according to the statement, and ran over to the van. Price released the girl, and she told her mother what happened, the police said.

After receiving a call about the incident, North Kingstown patrol officers and detectives and state police troopers hit the streets, looking for the van.

It was found in the parking lot of the Wickford Motor Inn, 7650 Post Rd., which Price has listed as his address, according to the police. The police found Price and another man there and brought them in for questioning.

Both were taken into custody. Price was held; the second man was in the van but not involved, the police said. He was released, as was a third man, who was questioned later.

The police charged Price with second-degree sexual assault, a felony, and enticement of a child, which is a felony if the person has been previously convicted of the same offense.

Wearing black running pants, a gray T-shirt and sandals, Price grumbled as he was led into District Court, Wakefield, yesterday. He did not enter pleas because both counts are being charged as felonies, which are handled in Superior Court.

Lt. Robert Desjarlais asked Judge William C. Clifton to set bail high because Price is a convicted rapist and has a record in Louisiana for drug possession.

Price was convicted of rape and sodomy in Georgia and sentenced to 15 years in prison, with 4 to serve and 11 suspended in 1993, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general’s office. He has registered as a sex offender in Georgia, Maine, Louisiana, but is not yet listed on the Rhode Island sex offender Web site because he just registered last week, according to North Kingstown Capt. Charles Brennan.

John Plummer, of the public defender’s office, told Clifton that Price had arrived in Rhode Island several weeks ago as a shipbuilder after a fire damaged the yard he had been working at in Maine. He is now working for Senesco, and his wife and 2½-year-old daughter had just moved in with him after being evacuated from New Orleans last week, he said.

Plummer told the judge that Price was not currently on probation.

Clifton set Price’s bail at $50,000 with surety, meaning he would need to post $5,000 cash or property worth the full amount. Price did not make bail yesterday.

If convicted, Price would face a maximum of 15 years in prison for second-degree assault and five years for felony enticement, Healey said.

Lawrence said her daughter, a freshman at North Kingstown High School, is now afraid to stay at home because Price knows where she lives and told her he would come back.

“Now she wants to warn the other children to be alert,” says Lawrence, who is proud of the strength her daughter has shown.

Of lessons learned, her daughter says: “I learned don’t leave the house after dark. Listen to your parents. I learned not to talk to strangers.”

kmulvane@projo.com