Sebastopol rape spotlights nature of sexual assaults in Sonoma County

A series of unrelated local rapes, public gropings and a bedroom intruder reported to police last year reflect a troubling, unusual and often hard-to-solve type of crime: Sexual assaults committed by strangers.

In the most recent case, Sebastopol police are circulating a sketch of an unknown man drawn from the recollections of a woman who told officers the man grabbed, dragged and raped her as she was walking to a downtown grocery store.

Sebastopol Police Chief Jeff Weaver said the violent attack has unnerved the west county city. Residents have fanned out to post fliers across town, police visited a packed self-defense class organized in the incident's aftermath and dispatchers have fielded a steady stream of questions from concerned residents.

“This has been a very traumatic event obviously for the victim, but certainly the community is impacted as well,” Weaver said. “It has shaken some people's sense of safety in a town that is known as a very safe place.”

More than twice a week, on average, someone reports a rape to Sonoma County law enforcement agencies, according to FBI statistics collected last year from local agencies.

The vast majority of cases involved perpetrators known to the victims. Many of those cases revolve around questions of consent, and within those cases were a troubling number in which alcohol or drugs played a role, local law enforcement investigators said.

Petaluma Police Sgt. Ed Crosby needs only one hand to count the number of sexual assaults committed by people unknown to the victims during his 20 years with the Petaluma Police Department.

For most investigations, “it's not a whodunnit,” said Crosby, the department's violent crimes investigator. Instead, he said, most cases center on whether the victim consented to the encounter.

“For the vast majority of cases, it (the identity of the suspect) is not a mystery,” Crosby said.

Unsolved cases

However, there are several unsolved cases still on the books, including a rape investigation launched after a Petaluma woman called 911 on Sept. 18 to report she had been attacked and raped by an unknown intruder inside her home.

Crosby said police found little physical evidence that could have been left behind by an intruder and they've exhausted all tips from the public. Detectives are holding out hope that fragmented DNA found on a household object still under analysis at a state Department of Justice laboratory might yield a clue, Crosby said.

About 80 percent of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, according to the 2009-2013 National Crime Victimization Study conducted by the Department of Justice.

That percentage may be higher for local cases, according to some Sonoma County detectives, a reflection that perpetrators most likely inflict sexual violence upon people they know. Strangers rarely launch such attacks, detectives said.

However, they do occur.

“Those are the most dangerous people: Someone who inflicts that level of violence on another human being,” Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Cecile Focha said. “The emotional trauma a victim goes through in a sexual assault is beyond the pale.”

Domestic violence/sexual assault detectives with the Sheriff's Office and Santa Rosa police both have offices in the Sonoma County Family Justice Center. Focha said that helps them quickly collaborate in high-profile “whodunnit” cases as well as to identify trends and problems.

In 2009, a-still unidentified man slipped into a Santa Rosa Junior College building and sexually assaulted a faculty member in a brutal attack that remains unsolved.

Santa Rosa police detectives still are investigating that case, in addition to a rape reported by a student in August at a first-floor bathroom in Barnett Hall by an unknown attacker. In both cases, there is little physical evidence that might help detectives identify a suspect, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson said.

SRJC Police Lt. Robert Brownlee said campus police have increased foot patrols and improved lighting in some areas. The college and students have launched campaigns to educate students about sexual assault and encourage people to be vigilant.

“We rely on the community to keep eyes open and report any suspicious activity,” Brownlee said.

Prosecutors charged a 30-year-old Santa Rosa man with three counts of assault with intent to commit rape after police linked him to a series of brazen daylight confrontations on public sidewalks and trails. Three women reported an unknown man groped and grabbed them, trying to remove their clothing.

The three known cases spanned four months last year while police chased down leads that, one after another, came up empty. That ended June 6 when a witness helped police link Jason Hulac to an incident that day near Coffey Lane, where a man grabbed the breasts, buttocks and genitals of a developmentally disabled woman walking on a sidewalk.

“We spent a substantial amount of time investigating those cases, and ultimately it broke because he did it again,” Anderson said.

Hulac's lawyer has said that he is mentally ill and therefore unable to form specific intent to commit the crimes. A judge ruled there's enough evidence against Hulac to warrant a trial, and he's scheduled to appear in court next week for a trial date to be set.

Woman awakened

A Rohnert Park woman was startled awake Dec. 20 by a strange man touching her sheets. She screamed and he ran.

Arnulfo Pureco Ortega, 25, of Rohnert Park turned himself in the next day, and through an attorney told police that he ended up in the apartment as a result of a drunken accident, law enforcement said. However, police found a bag of undergarments belonging to the woman's roommate when they searched Ortega's residence, officials said.

Chris Castillo, executive director of Verity, a nonprofit organization that operates Sonoma County's rape crisis center, said that sexual assault is far more prevalent than most people realize and that it takes many forms, from verbal sexual assault to actual physical violence.

“Rape and sexual assault and sexual violence is going on all of the time throughout this county, every moment of every day,” Castillo said. “The cases made public allow for a community to begin having a conversation about how to be safe, about what are some of the signs to look for when you're with friends, out partying or at home; how you can protect yourself and how you can protect your children.”

Just as random violence is difficult to solve, it is also difficult to prevent, but there are ways people can protect themselves and look out for those around them, Castillo said.

In addition to the organization's work providing support for victims, Verity staff members visit school classrooms several times a week to educate children about how to protect themselves, protect each other and behave appropriately.

They teach the littlest children, kindergarten to third grade, that they are in charge of their own bodies and, for example, have the right to turn down even innocent-seeming requests for a hug and a kiss if they want, said Kristen Bricker, prevention education manager.

The conversation becomes more complex as the students become older, such as helping youth understand the variety of factors that go into consent. A new standard of consent is being taught following a California law that took effect Jan. 1 that states only “affirmative consent” during a sexual encounter can be viewed as consent by law.

“Silence and ‘maybe' doesn't mean ‘yes,'?” Bricker said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.