Sheriff's Dept: Imperial Beach Rapes and Bonita Groping Suspect Not Connected

Despite very similar descriptions, a man arrested Monday in a Bonita groping case is not the same as assailants involved in two rapes in Imperial Beach, authorities said.

“We looked at this real closely, but unfortunately when we did the facial recognition it is not the same gentleman," said sheriff’s Sgt. Laura Spang-Dvorchak.

Deputies arrested the man with force at gunpoint, Garmo said. He is not suspected in the Imperial Beach rapes due to distinctive facial characteristics, namely the difference in description of the suspects teeth.

"There's really no reason for us to believe at this time that they are in any way related," Garmo said.

Around 11 a.m. Monday, deputies were called to the 3200 block of Bonita Road by a 16-year-old girl who claimed she was aggressively groped.

She fought the man off, flagged down a motorist and followed the man who was on foot until deputies, authorities said. The victim told deputies she believed the man wanted to pull her into some bushes to be sexually assaulted.

“This investigation is ongoing, but as a result of the preliminary interviews the suspect is going to be booked on a charge of assault with intent to commit rape,” said a Sheriff’s Department statement.

The man arrested Monday—whose name has not yet been released—is 6 feet 1, weighing 175 lbs. and is in his 20s—a near identical description to the assailant in both Imperial Beach sexual assault incidents in July 2012 and February 2013.

In both Imperial Beach cases a woman walking on Fifth Street near Palm Avenue was approached, pushed offthe sidewalk into bushes and raped. No suspects have been arrested, Spang-Dvorchak said.

“That one’s still haunting us,” she said. “We’re still working on it.”

The Sheriff’s Department concluded that the two rapes in Imperial Beach were related.