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City Beat
DNA test exonerates suspect in assault of 7-year old
Police still looking for girl's assailant
By Kate Carter
Police are still looking for the assailant in the sexual assault of a 7-year-old Gardner Academy student after a DNA test cleared a former suspect of the crime on May 2.
"It came back that it wasn't the guy," San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon said. "We had an awful lot of stuff that said it was."
Police brought the suspect in the April 26 incident to police headquarters on April 28, and booked him into Santa Clara County Jail the next morning. Dixon said the man matched the description of the suspect and was found less than three blocks from the crime scene with a blue bicycle similar to the one the assailant rode. The man made a statement that had him talking to some children at the scene at the time of the crime, Dixon said, and he also had a history of sexual assault.
But preliminary results of a DNA test showed that the suspect's did not match the DNA found at the crime scene, Dixon said.
Police are still looking into leads in the case and continue to receive calls with information about possible suspects, he said. The crime lab will also continue to run tests on the evidence and compare its DNA sample from the crime to the state's DNA database.
"Our crime lab here is not done with it," Dixon said. "We're still looking for the suspect."
The man arrested by police was not formally charged with the sexual assault, Dixon said. He faces two other misdemeanor charges of being under the influence of methamphetamine and bicycling while intoxicated, and was arraigned on May 2.
Authorities in San Mateo County had been following the case to see if the man could have been the culprit in two similar incidents, one in East Palo Alto in October and another in Redwood City, Dixon said. The man was never a formal suspect in those two cases, he said, although investigators would have considered him in their cases if his DNA had matched the evidence.
The second-grader had been walking to school by herself when a man lured her into the Guadalupe River bed, under the railroad trestle near the intersection of Willow Street and McLellan Avenue, Dixon said. The man threatened her with a knife or sharp object and assaulted her, then left on a blue bicycle, he said.
Officer Mark Hakke said perpetrators in these types of cases often entice children by pretending to know their family members or promising money.
"We want everybody to be careful of people offering money in exchange for going with them," Hakke said.
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.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
