A day after his arrest on suspicion of burglary and prowling, Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo has been admitted into a treatment facility for help with what Carrillo and his friends have said is a recurrent drinking problem.
The quick retreat into seclusion — confirmed Sunday by one of his closest advisers — happened as news of the arrest rippled across the county and state and as investigators continue to piece together what happened early Saturday morning in Carrillo's west Santa Rosa neighborhood.
Police said they detained him after a woman reported that someone tried to break into her home through a bedroom window.
Although Santa Rosa police arrested him on suspicion of burglary and prowling, they believe his intent was to commit some type of sexual assault, according to Sgt. Terry Anderson.
Carrillo was wearing nothing but his socks and underwear and was carrying a cellphone when officers responded to a 3:40 a.m. 911 call in the area of Stony Point Road at West Third Street, within a block of Carrillo's rented Brockhurst Drive apartment.
He was booked at Sonoma County Jail at 10:10 a.m. and was released on $40,000 bail within two hours. He has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday.
It is unclear whether Carrillo plans to attend that hearing.
Doug Bosco, a former North Coast congressman, friend and adviser to Carrillo, said the 32-year-old supervisor likely will remain at a Northern California treatment facility for a month. He declined to provide details on Carrillo's whereabouts or who had accompanied him to the facility.
The supervisor's brother, Abraham Carrillo, 24, said Sunday he was unaware of exactly where his brother was taken for treatment. In a phone interview, he said their father had said Saturday that "somebody took him." "He didn't say where," Abraham Carrillo said.
Calls, emails and text-messages to Supervisor Carrillo Saturday and Sunday requesting comment have not been returned.
"I realize that my behavior was embarrassing. It involved alcohol and I'm taking immediate steps to seek professional help," Carrillo said in a two-sentence email he sent Saturday to The Press Democrat and other media outlets.
Police said Sunday they were pulling together a report to hand to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office that outlines evidence that Carrillo tried to get into the woman's apartment with the intent of committing some kind of sexual assault.
Prosecutors will have to decide whether that evidence warrants charging Carrillo with felony burglary. Police did not reveal additional details about their evidence, while Carrillo's supporters sought to downplay the allegations, saying his actions, fueled by alcohol, were not predatory.
Police have not released the woman's name, saying they intend to withhold it because they suspect she's the victim of an attempted sexual assault.
Before dawn on Saturday, the woman called police and said someone had tried to get into her bedroom through a window. The sound of the window blinds being moved woke her.
She called again moments later as officers were heading to the residence and said that the person had knocked on her front door, identifying himself as a neighbor before running away.
Officers found the bedroom window screen was torn and the window open enough for a person to reach through, Anderson said.
There were witnesses to at least some of the night's events, Anderson said. But he declined to explain where the witnesses were or what they observed.
In legal terms, burglary is when a person enters a home or structure with the intent of committing a felony crime, often theft. But in this case, Anderson said they suspect Carrillo intended to commit not theft but sexual assault.
"Had he gone and simply knocked on the door, you're talking about a different scenario," Anderson said. "But when you attempt to enter the house through a screen, it's elevated to something more serious, quite a bit more serious."
The case ultimately could be handled by the state Attorney General's Office under a standard protocol used when a conflict arises for the county district attorney. In this case, that conflict could include Carrillo's authority over District Attorney Jill Ravitch's budget.
Saturday's arrest was the supervisor's second in 10 months. On Labor Day weekend last year, Carrillo was arrested outside a San Diego nightclub after a fight that left a man unconscious. Prosecutors later dropped misdemeanor battery and disturbing the peace charges against Carrillo.
Carrillo claimed he had stepped in to protect female friends who were being verbally and physically harassed by a stranger.
The woman's identity in the latest incident wasn't released because police suspect she is the "victim of a burglary that contained the elements of attempted sexual assault," Anderson said.
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