Rape-kidnapping followed a night of drinking

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer

A woman who was kidnapped and raped after drinking in downtown Mountain View told police that she went in and out of consciousness as a stranger assaulted her in his apartment throughout the night, according to a police report.

The woman said she blacked out after dancing at the Monte Carlo night club with her husband and friends on Saturday night, and she woke up naked on a bed next to Henry Bermudez, who was arrested on Sunday morning for allegedly raping her.

The woman’s husband told police that the last thing he remembers that night was a fight that broke out near their table at Monte Carlo, and security kicking people out. He wasn’t sure if he was kicked out too, and the next thing he remembered was waking up at El Camino Hospital in the morning.

Firefighters told police they took the husband to the hospital after he threw up in an Uber. In the morning, the husband called his mom, who picked him up from the hospital, and he started asking where his wife was. He tried calling her but learned that he had her phone, and their friends, who made it back to their hotel, didn’t know where she was either, according to the police report.

Victim’s recollection reduced

One of the friends told the husband that he blacked out, and the other said she remembered the night but not where the victim went after they left Monte Carlo.

Around 9 a.m. Sunday, the victim called her husband from a good Samaritan’s phone. The husband and her family members who had joined the search rushed to her location on Castro Street and flagged down police officers.

The victim’s arms were bruised, and she had redness and marks, including a hickey, on both sides of her neck, police said.

Officer Pablo Donato interviewed the victim, who was emotional. She said Bermudez had raped her on the fourth floor of 201 Castro St., where he lives in a small loft apartment above Red Rock Coffee.

When the victim woke up and asked Bermudez if she could leave to see her family, Bermudez told her that “no one loved her and that was the reason they left her behind alone,” the victim told police.

Bermudez told the victim that she was his — as in his property — and told her to forget about her kids since they could make more kids together, the victim said. The victim pleaded with Bermudez not to rape her and tried to fight him off, she said.

“The victim was crying and was afraid for her life,” Donato wrote.

Victim fled apartment

When Bermudez got up to use the bathroom, the victim said she ran out of an emergency exit down the stairs and flagged down a passerby, who let her use his phone to call her family.

The landlord identified Bermudez as the suspect, and police found him at the restaurant where he worked.
In Spanish, Bermudez told Donato that he went outside for a smoke at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning and found the victim trying to get away from three men by telling them that she lived in his building.

Bermudez said he let the victim inside to help her, and he showered her and put her onto his bed after she made a mess in his bathroom.

“Bermudez said he felt feelings toward the victim and was caressing her face and wanted to have sex with her,” Donato wrote.

Suspect says victim was willing
Bermudez “said the victim reciprocated his advances by moaning and asking to hug her,” Donato said.

He said they had sex around 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. before she fled.

Bermudez said he was upset the victim didn’t thank him for helping her and cleaning her up, and she never told him that she didn’t want to have sex.

Bermudez gave police several biological samples, and the victim took a sexual assault exam.

Police are still looking for the passerby who let the victim use his phone. They also need to interview the two friends, and they haven’t found any surveillance video that shows the area outside of Bermudez’s apartment.

Bermudez was arrested on Sunday morning at Don Giovanni, a Castro Street restaurant where he works as a chef. The victim broke down in tears when she saw him from 40 feet away, and she identified him down to a scar on the back of his arm, according to the police report.

Judge Brian Buckelew ruled at the Palo Alto Courthouse yesterday that Bermudez will be held without bail and scheduled his next court date on Feb 7.

Bermudez, 32, is charged with kidnapping, rape, sodomy, false imprisonment and assault.