Lawrence Taylor, the former New York Giants linebacker, was arrested early Thursday morning and will be arraigned Thursday afternoon on a charge of third-degree rape involving a 16-year-old girl at a hotel in Montebello, N.Y., according to the authorities.
Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

Lawrence Taylor, at Giants Stadium in December, was suspended several times during his 13-year career for drug use and has admitted to battling alcohol.
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Taylor was taken into custody after the police received a report that the girl, who was reported to be missing from her home in the Bronx since March, had been brought to Taylor’s hotel room by a pimp. According to Christopher P. St. Lawrence, the town supervisor of Ramapo, N.Y., the Ramapo police went to Taylor’s room at the Holiday Inn Suffern, in Montebello, and arrested him without incident.

The police have scheduled a news conference for 3:30 p.m. to discuss the case. Taylor has an arraignment hearing on the third-degree rape charge at 4 p.m.

“We have a victim who is 16 years old who has alleged that they had sex,” Mr. St. Lawrence said. “She is not allowed under New York laws to have consensual sex. She is traumatized. She’s a very young girl.”

Mr. St. Lawrence said the chain of events started when the girl’s uncle, who had reported her missing, called the New York Police Department saying he had received a text message from her. In it, she said she was being driven back to the Bronx by a pimp and gave the address where she was headed. N.Y.P.D. officers went to that address, and found the girl and the alleged pimp. The N.Y.P.D. then called the Ramapo police and asked them to arrest Taylor.

Mr. St. Lawrence said they were looking to bring charges against the pimp, whose name he said would be released at the news conference, and said the police were investigating whether the girl had been kept by him against her will.

“I think she was victimized by someone helping her for the wrong reasons,” Mr. St. Lawrence said.

Mr. Taylor, 51, lists his residence as Pembroke Pines, Fla., but he also owns a home in northern New Jersey. Montebello, a village in Rockland County about 25 miles north of New York City, is close to the New York-New Jersey state line; the hotel is situated just off the New York Thruway. Mr. St. Lawrence said the hotel is about a half-mile from the Spook Rock Golf Course, where Mr. Taylor plays about 50 times a year.

Mr. Taylor, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and is considered one of the best defensive players to play in the N.F.L., had a 13-year career with the Giants that was marred by problems with drugs and alcohol. He was suspended several times by the N.F.L. and was arrested multiple times for drug possession. In the past few years he has re-emerged as a public personality, including working in front of the camera on N.F.L. broadcasts. He has said his drug problems are in his past.

In November he was charged in Dade County, Fla., with leaving the scene of an accident. He was released on $500 bond; the case is still pending.

Mr. St. Lawrence said that the police removed evidence from Mr. Taylor’s room, but that he did not believe the police found drugs.

Officials from the Giants and the N.F.L. said they would have no immediate comment on Thursday about the arrest.