 |
|
|
|
|
Suspect is arrested in sex assault on girl, 7
Police probe links to similar crimes
By Kate Carter
After several days responding to phone tips, scouring neighborhoods and questioning locals, police have arrested a man who they say may have sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl as she walked to school at Gardner Academy in northern Willow Glen.
Police say they expect to have DNA lab test results May 1 that could strengthen their case against the suspect. They say he could also be a suspect in two similar assaults in San Mateo County.
Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon said the attack on the girl occurred at about 8 a.m. on April 26 on the banks of the Guadalupe River near the intersection of Willow Street and McClellan Avenue, just east of Highway 87.
On April 28, an officer--one of between 30 and 40 searching in the vicinity of the crime--noticed a man who matched the suspect's description, including having a blue bicycle, Dixon said. The man, a transient in the area, was under the influence of alcohol and also possibly methamphetamines, Dixon said.
Police brought the man to police headquarters in the afternoon of April 28 and waited for him to sober up before questioning him, he said. They booked him the morning of April 29 on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, being under the influence and being under the influence while riding a bicycle, he said. He is being held without bail at Santa Clara County Jail and his arraignment is set for May 2.
Dixon said police expect to have results of a variety of tests, including a DNA analysis, before the arraignment. The District Attorney's office could modify the charges against the suspect, to possibly include kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault, after the results come in, he said.
Police officers continued to investigate and search the area after the arrest, he said.
"We want to make sure we have the right guy," he said. He added that police are still trying to find out where he has been since the assault.
On April 26, the 7-year-old girl was walking with her 11-year-old sister just before the incident, Dixon said. The two split up--the older girl heading to school at Washington Elementary School on Almaden Avenue, and the younger girl heading to Gardner Academy on the corner of Illinois and W. Virginia avenues in Willow Glen, where she is in the second grade.
Minutes after that, the suspect, riding a blue bicycle, approached the younger girl, lured her into the river bed and sexually assaulted her, while threatening her with a knife or knife-like object, Dixon said. He then left on the bike.
The girl, crying and muddy, was spotted by Patrick Marienthal, as she stood in front of his window cleaning company on Willow Street. Marienthal told The Resident that he and a San Jose Water Company meter reader approached her and asked her if she needed help, Marienthal said. She told them she was lost, and the two men offered to call her parents, he said.
She couldn't remember her number, so Marienthal offered to drive her around to see if she could recognize her home, he said. He drove her down Mclellan Avenue to Virginia Avenue, when she told him that her school was on Virginia. Marienthal asked her if she would like to go to school and she said yes, so he dropped her there at about 10 a.m.
"I just thought I'd taken a lost little girl home," Marienthal said. "I wish she had told me. I would've got police there earlier."
Marienthal said he called police later that day when he heard the story on the news.
Gardner Principal Nico Flores said the girl went to her classroom, where her teacher could tell that something was wrong and sent her to the main office. There, he said, she spoke with the school's health aide and counselor, who called her parents but they weren't home, and then called police.
School officials eventually tracked the parents down through their girl's grandmother, who arrived at the school after police officers showed up there at about 10:30 a.m.
The girl was later taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center where she underwent surgery for her injuries, Dixon said.
Flores said he sent a flyer home to parents that day and that the school's counselor spent the following day talking with the girl's class. He said the staff was trying to reassure the students that they were safe at school. They also reminded parents not to let their children walk alone and to tell them not to speak to strangers.
He said the school has not experienced anything like this in recent memory.
Dixon said there is no history of this type of crime in the area where it happened. He also reminded parents not to let their children walk alone to school; have them walk in groups if a parent cannot accompany them, he said.
Dixon said there is a "very strong similarity" between this incident and two others in San Mateo County--an assault of a schoolgirl in East Palo Alto last October and another in Redwood City.
Dixon described the suspect as a Hispanic male between 35 and 45 years old, from 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall and with a heavy build. The suspect is described as having wavy salt-and-pepper hair, a mustache and beard stubble.
Police are asking anyone with information on this case to call Detectives Nick Battaglia or Steve Slack at 408.277.4102, or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 408.277.STOP.
|
|
|
|
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
