A 61-year-old man was charged Tuesday with six felonies for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who had come to his Redwood City apartment to do a sales pitch for vitamin supplements, authorities said.
Redwood City police officers arrested Ricardo Zaragoza Mendez on Friday, about a half hour after the woman flagged down a California Highway Patrol officer and reported she had been assaulted, said police Sgt. Dan Mulholland.
Mendez appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, forcible oral copulation, forcible sexual penetration, assault to commit rape, felony assault and false imprisonment, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
If convicted on all counts, Mendez would likely face 20 to 30 years in prison, Wagstaffe said. Officials say the victim and Mendez knew each other from a class they had together at a local adult school. The victim sells vitamin supplements and arranged with Mendez to come Friday night to his apartment on the 500 block of Charter Street for a sales presentation, Wagstaffe said.
When she arrived, Mendez asked her to come into his bedroom, where he said he had other vitamins that he wanted her to look at, Wagstaffe said.
Once the two were in the bedroom, Mendez pulled down her pants and began sexually assaulting her about 7:45 p.m., authorities said.
The woman resisted and was eventually able to grab a flashlight and hit him in the head four or five times, causing a gash on his head, Wagstaffe said. She then escaped to a nearby apartment for a brief time before flagging down the passing CHP officer about 7:55 p.m., Mulholland said.
“She did a great job fighting this guy off and being very strong in fighting through this thing,” Mulholland said. When Redwood City police arrived, the victim identified Mendez and police arrested him, Mulholland said. In a statement to investigators, Mendez denied sexually assaulting the woman and told police she attacked him, Wagstaffe said.
Mendez remains in custody on $200,000 bail.
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