SRJC police arrest sexual battery suspect

Santa Rosa Junior College police Monday arrested a 20-year-old student suspected of grabbing another student’s buttocks.

The suspected sexual battery is the latest in a series of crimes reported on campus, including an armed robbery earlier this month and the arrest of a suspected peeper in a woman’s bathroom in August.

On Monday, a student called police about 5:50 p.m., saying a man approached her from behind and grabbed her as she exited a Shuhaw Hall restroom.

The woman screamed, and the man briskly walked away, police said. While talking to police, she followed him to a nearby parking lot where officers stopped the man, which they later identified as David Cacique Morales, 20, of Santa Rosa.

He was arrested and booked into Sonoma County Jail.

Meanwhile, SRJC Police Chief Robert Brownlee said Tuesday officers continue to investigate the ?Oct. 11 armed robbery. A student was leaving a night class when she said a man grabbed her by the sleeve and another pointed a handgun at her back, demanding her belongings.

SRJC officers are working with Santa Rosa police detectives, but no suspects have emerged. Minor thefts and car break-ins occur at times, but it was the first armed robbery on campus in possibly more than ?20 years, according to a longtime campus police officer.

Last month, police arrested an 18-year-old man after a faculty member reported he was “aggressively flirting” with women on campus.

In August, a 19-year-old Santa Rosa man was arrested on suspicion of peeping in a women’s restroom. A college employee told police the man hid in an adjacent stall and looked under the partition as she used the bathroom.

A similar incident was reported in May at the Southwest campus. Two women told police a man used a cellphone to take pictures or video of them while they were in the stalls. The case remains open but a prior bathroom peeping case resulted in an arrest, Brownlee said.

“It seems like an anomaly right now, but as we progress and crunch the numbers, we’ll see if it’s an ongoing issue and how we can combat it,” he said.

Brownlee attributed the uptick in cases in part to victims feeling more empowered to report crimes with the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, as well as an increase in support services for them.

“I think that in our current culture, with the Me Too movement, female victim have more resources. They’re coming forward more than ever. It’s easier to report,” Brownlee said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.