Man suspected of raping fellow student at SRJC campus in Petaluma

A 19-year-old man was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of raping a fellow student at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Petaluma campus library, authorities said.

Brandon Larrieta Cortes of Petaluma was taken into custody just south of the college on his way to class, Petaluma Police Sgt. Paul Gilman said.

A female student reported to campus police Tuesday she had been assaulted a day earlier at Herold Mahoney Library. The Petaluma Police Department, the lead agency for all serious crimes on campus, identified Cortes as the lone suspect, Gilman said.

“When we believe a crime occurred, what we’re trying to do is go beyond a simple ‘he said, she said,’?” Gilman said, declining to discuss the evidence. “I can’t go into it, but we did establish probable cause to make the arrest in this case.”

The Herold Mahoney Library does not have cameras inside, though they’re located on the exterior of Petaluma campus buildings, SRJC spokeswoman Erin Bricker said. A community service officer was at the library at the time of the attack, she said.

Cortes was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of rape, sodomy and sexual battery, police said. His bail was set at $125,000.

His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Cortes had no prior criminal history as an adult in Sonoma County, according to a court records search.

The victim and Cortes knew each other before the reported assault, at least as casual friends, Gilman said. He was not clear on the extent of their relationship or how far back it went.

“A report of this nature shakes our campus community to the core,” SRJC President Frank Chong said in a statement. “SRJC takes this matter very seriously and is dedicated to doing everything in our power (to) ensure that our students and employees are safe on campus and that any victim of such a crime has support resources readily available.”

Bricker said all SRJC employees are required to complete sexual assault and harassment prevention training every two years. Students are not required to undergo training because the campus does not want to interfere with educational access, placing registration holds on students who do not complete it, she said.

Bricker said the campus has a number of events designed to bring awareness to sexual assault happening this month. The events coincide with Women’s History Month and include a “Take Back the Night” march aimed at speaking out against sexual, relationship and domestic violence. Chong will attend the event, which will take place at 5 p.m. March 27 at the quad in front of the Santa Rosa campus student center.

The federal Clery Act requires universities to issue notices when certain types of crimes that pose a threat to students are reported to campus authorities. According to Clery Act crime logs posted on the junior college’s website, there were over a dozen acts of sexual or intimate-partner violence reported on SRJC campuses in 2018. They included an incident of peeping using a video camera, three stalking cases, two cases of sexual assault, two cases of indecent exposure, a domestic battery and two sexual batteries.

The Clery Act requires campuses to report threats to student safety in a timely manner. No warning was sent out when the rape was reported Tuesday and the campus community was not notified until Cortes was arrested Thursday.

Chong said in a statement that police learned Cortes’ identity as soon as the rape was reported but officers “determined that the suspect did not pose an immediate threat to anyone else on campus.”

The decision not to send out a Clery warning Tuesday was made by campus police who believed sending a warning would risk the integrity of the investigation Bricker said.

Gilman did not believe there were witnesses to Monday’s reported assault, but he asked anyone with information to call the detective overseeing the case at ?707-778-4456.

“If anybody did see anything, they are asked to come forward,” Gilman said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler. You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Beale at 707-521-5205 or andrew.beale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @iambeale.