Santa Rosa man, 52, suspected of molesting two younger relatives

A 52-year-old Santa Rosa man was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting two adult family members when they were children, police said Wednesday.

Guadalupe Barragan-Zepeda was booked Tuesday into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of three felonies and a misdemeanor after Santa Rosa police officers interviewed two of his female relatives who said he sexually assaulted them, including when one victim was about 10 years old.

Officers became involved at 10:30 p.m. Monday, when they received information about an alleged sexual assault of a child and visited a home where they interviewed the two female family members. The women, whose names were not released, told officers a relative - identified by police as Barragan-Zepeda - had subjected them to ongoing sexual assaults, police said.

One woman reported sexual assaults from age 10 to 19 while another said she was assaulted multiple times at age 16, Sgt. Terry Anderson said. Police aren’t releasing the women’s current ages to protect their confidentiality, Anderson said.

While officers were investigating the assaults, they learned another male relative was allegedly driving to Barragan-Zepeda’s home to confront him, possibly even physically assault him, police said. But a Santa Rosa police officer arrived first at the home of Barragan-Zepeda, who was aware of the sexual assault allegations, according to Santa Rosa police.

Barragan-Zepeda was arrested and booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, sexually assaulting a child, and attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, all felonies. He was also booked on suspicion of misdemeanor sexual battery. He’s being held on $350,000 bail.

Anderson said police have several pending interviews with other people outside California who also may have been victims. Anyone with additional information about the case is encouraged to call Santa Rosa police’s domestic violence and sexual assault tip line at 707-543-4040.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@thejdmorris.