DNA ties Nevada man to two-year-old rape in Santa Fe

Male victim said he was assaulted after visiting a downtown nightclub

Police in Las Vegas, Nev., arrested a 31-year-old man Thursday who was recently linked to a two-year-old Santa Fe rape through a national DNA database.

Raul Gonzales, who was on probation in Las Vegas, was charged with rape and kidnapping after he was arrested Thursday morning, said Capt. Gary Johnson, a Santa Fe police spokesman. He remained in jail in Las Vegas on Thursday awaiting extradition to Santa Fe, he said.

Police, however, do not consider Gonzales a suspect in the string of rapes and attempted rapes of women along the St. Francis Drive corridor since September because he is accused of raping a man in Santa Fe, Johnson said.

The male victim in the case reported he was dancing and drinking alcohol at Swig, a downtown nightclub now called Fusion, on May 22, 2005, Johnson said. The next thing the man remembered was waking up while being raped in the back seat of a car parked in a wooded area, Johnson said.

The alleged rapist said something to the victim about “prison” and threatened him before the victim was able to escape, he said. The victim made his way through the wooded area and to St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he was examined by a sexual-assault examination nurse, Johnson said. Johnson did not know the wooded area’s location.

The DNA evidence gathered in the exam was entered into the DNA database and recently turned up a match, Johnson said. Gonzales was located through family members in Santa Fe, Johnson said.

J.R. Haggerty, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Probation and Parole Department, said Thursday that Gonzales was on probation for attempted robbery. He pleaded guilty to the charge last December and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

Haggerty said Gonzales called his probation officer Thursday morning and said he heard he might be in trouble “back home in Santa Fe.” The officer then found the warrant and Gonzales was arrested without incident, Haggerty said.

“He was doing OK (on probation) until this morning,” Haggerty said. “I’ve had no problems with him.”

Online court records show Gonzales was charged with driving while intoxicated in January 1992 when he was a juvenile.