MOUNTAIN VIEW – A 32-year-old Mountain View man has been charged with grabbing a woman off a downtown street and raping her in his nearby apartment over the weekend, according to authorities.
Henry Bermudez was charged this week with rape and four additional rape- and assault-related counts indicating that the victim was intoxicated and unconscious during the reported attack.
Mountain View police stated in a news release that the woman reported being assaulted Saturday night after she became separated from her husband along Castro Street. While she was on her own, she told police that she was taken to an apartment in the 200 block of Castro, near Villa Street, where she was raped.
At some point the woman was able to leave, and she called her family by borrowing a phone from a good Samaritan. She reconnected with her family — who had reported her missing — and on Sunday morning, they flagged down a Mountain View patrol sergeant downtown and reported the sexual assault.
Police said the woman directed investigators to her attacker’s apartment, and after visiting the site they considered Bermudez as a suspect and learned he worked on the same block.
Officers arrested Bermudez at his workplace after the woman identified him as her attacker, police said. He was booked into the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas.
During Bermudez’s arraignment Wednesday at the Palo Alto Courthouse, Deputy District Attorney Lauren Ogata retold the woman’s account, which alleges that as she went in and out of unconsciousness, Bermudez repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her as she begged him to stop.
Ogata added that after Bermudez was arrested, he reportedly admitted that “he knew the victim was extremely intoxicated.” The prosecutor called Bermudez a “threat to all vulnerable women” in arguing against his release from jail.
During the bail discussion, the reported victim’s husband spoke briefly to the court via video conference, saying his wife will “go into shock at random points during the day” and that “she knows she escaped, but is in fear that (Bermudez) will be released.”
Judge Brian Buckelew agreed with Ogata, citing public safety concerns in remanding Bermudez back to jail without bail. Bermudez’s next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 7.
Police said the investigation is ongoing, and that detectives exploring the possibility of more potential victims linked to Bermudez. Anyone with information about the case can contact Detective Christine Powell at christine.powell@mountainview.gov.
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