The Fullerton Police Department and Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) are seeking other possible victims of a 32-year-old man accused of kidnapping a woman leaving In Cahoots, driving her off-site, sexually assaulting her and dropping her off in the nightclub's parking lot.
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Nelson Mauricio Lunaty Garcia was arraigned Friday, but the hearing was continued to Oct. 2 without the Chino Hills resident having entered a plea to felony kidnapping to commit a sexual offense, felony forcible oral copulation, felony sexual penetration by a foreign object and force and felony sodomy by force.
If Garcia, who was being held on $1 million bail, is convicted, he could be sentenced to 31 years to life in state prison, according to the OCDA.
The unidentified woman was leaving In Cahoots on South Lemon Street around midnight Sept. 3 when she was approached by a man “who she thought was a police officer or security guard,” according to Fullerton Police Sgt. Kathryn Hamel.
“Thinking she was being arrested, the victim was bound by the male suspect and placed into the back of what she believed to be an undercover police car,” Hamel said of what transpired before the woman was driven to the Skyline area, where she was told she would be released if she cooperated, Hamel said.
Instead, “the victim was then forcibly sexually assaulted by the suspect,” said Hamel, adding that the woman was eventually taken back to the In Cahoots parking lot and released.
The victim did not inform police of the attack, but she did tell her friends, and they spotted a car matching the description of the attackers parked at In Cahoots Wednesday, Hamel said. Fullerton Police were summoned, an investigation was launched and Garcia was arrested, according to Hamel, who added a loaded firearm was recovered from the vehicle.
Due to the nature of the crime, police and prosecutors fear there may be other victims. Anyone with information about Garcia, the attack or others like it is urged to contact OCDA Supervising Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714.347.8794 or Fullerton Police Detective Mario Magliano at 714.738.6753. Anonymous tips may be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.