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Posted on 05/27/2009 2:56:21 PM PDT by AuntB
For five months in 2007 and 2008, a masked man with a gun and blue surgical gloves terrorized residents and travelers of the Columbia River Gorge. Robber has record in California
He robbed a pair of college students as they gazed up at the stars at Crown Point. After taking their cell phones, cash and car keys, they ran two miles to the nearest home to call police.
He ordered a pregnant woman and her two children to the floor of a restaurant -- the stress causing her to go into contractions. Her children, ages 9 and 11, were so frightened they wouldn't get up off the floor until police arrived and coaxed them to their feet.
Then the robber started sexually assaulting teenage girls who had parked at scenic points along the gorge with their boyfriends.
In a series of pleadings this week and last, Rigoberto Reyes Maldonado has agreed to serve more than 27 years in prison for his crimes, which targeted 17 people in seven separate holdups. The 34-year-old has pleaded guilty and no contest in Multnomah and Hood River counties to counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree sodomy and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration. He's agreed to plead to two more counts of robberies in Wasco County at a date that hasn't yet been set.
Maldonado's crime spree caused residents from Troutdale to The Dalles to take precautions. At Hood River Valley High School, staff warned students about visiting rest stops and secluded areas.
"He created a good deal of apprehension in the communities in the gorge," said Hood River County District Attorney John Sewell.
Authorities say Maldonado was able to rob again and again because he had experience. He'd served time in prison in California in the 1990s. A few weeks after getting out in 1997, he was wanted in two other robberies in that state, but managed to evade police for more than a decade.
Maldonado struck at night, covered his face, wore gloves, carried a gun and parked his getaway car where his victims could see it. And after he stole victims' ATM cards and forced them to reveal their PIN numbers, he frequented an ATM outside of a Hood River store that didn't have a surveillance camera.
During his robberies, he insisted victims look away -- like on Dec. 9, 2007, when he ordered two children and three employees, including the woman who was six months pregnant, face-down to the floor of the Charburger restaurant on the outskirts of Hood River. Maldonado struck at closing time, just after the place had cleared of customers.
Authorities grew more concerned after the robber sexually assaulted a teenage girl at Women's Forum park on Jan. 13, 2008. Multnomah County senior prosecutor Charles Sparks said Maldonado used a gun to force his way into a parked car. He ordered a teenage boy to drive toward Larch Mountain as he sexually assaulted the girl in the back seat. When he was finished, he ordered the boy to stop, got out, threw the keys into the dark and hopped off in a waiting car.
Police have not arrested the accomplice who drove the get-away car.
Three months later, Maldonado also sexually abused a 17-year-old girl who was with her boyfriend at a park next to Bridge of the Gods near Cascade Locks. Maldonado robbed them, then ordered the boyfriend to run up a hill at gunpoint and forced the girl to perform oral sex on him. Six days later, police searched Maldonado's Carson, Wash., home and found a pair of his underpants that were tested for DNA and found to have the girl's saliva on them.
"It was frankly a long shot," Sparks said. "You have to get lucky to get this evidence."
Sewell said investigators had suspected Maldonado of the crimes, after Multnomah County Sheriff's Detective Jose Torres pulled a license plate number from a surveillance video at Crown Point five months earlier. The video was shot several minutes before the college students were robbed as they gazed at the stars, but evidence that Maldonado's car was in the area wasn't enough to get a search warrant, Sewell said.
Over time, investigators used additional evidence, including descriptions from new victims, to help convince a judge to issue a warrant, Sewell said.
In a search of Maldonado's home and car, authorities found blue surgical gloves and a 9 mm gun hidden inside the wall of his kitchen. But Sewell said the DNA evidence in Maldonado's underpants made all the difference in the case.
"That was kind of the kiss of death for him," Sewell said.
Maldonado's crimes
Nov. 3, 2007: Robbed two college students at Crown Point.
Dec. 9, 2007: Robbed the Charburger restaurant on the outskirts of Hood River. Five victims.
Dec. 15, 2007: Robbed two men at the Mitchell Point Overlook near Hood River.
Dec. 16, 2007: Allegedly robbed a man and a woman at Kelly Viewpoint in The Dalles. He's agreed to plead to this crime.
Jan. 13, 2008: Robbed a teenage couple at Women's Forum park, then sexually assaulted the girl.
March 22, 2008: Allegedly robbed two men at Kelly Viewpoint. He's agreed to plead to this crime.
April 18, 2008: Robbed a high school couple, then forced the girl to perform oral sex.
http://www.larslarson.com/
The article, of course in sanctuary Oregon, doesn't mention his immigration status. Notice he is under an Ice hold as per his jail record. Hispanics, Mexicans etc. are listed as 'white'.
NORCOR Current Inmate Information
INS/ICE Hold(s) May 27, 2009 Inmate Name : MALDONADO, RIGOBERTO REYES Arrest Date .. : 04/24/2008 Booking Date : 04/24/2008
Age... : 33 Sex... : M Race : WHITE Height : 5'9"; Weight : 174 Hair .. : BRO Eyes : BRO
Total Bond : $ 812,500.00 Total Bail.. : $ 362,500.00 FUGITIVE/ICE DETAINER Other ROBBERY 1ST DEG/MULT. CO./090431620 Sentenced
http://www.norcor.co.wasco.or.us/eagle/ICUD0046.HTM
Oregon crime spree ping! Gang related?? I wonder how many tatoos this guy has? He certainly had someone willing to drive a get away car.
Hmmmmm....Charburger is less than 1/2 mile from my in-laws.....don’t recall hearing about this....although I do recall a couple of incidents with sexual assaults in the last couple of years...guess they finally caught the guy....HHMMMM.
They list his “Race” as “WHITE?” Hmmmm....guess only when you’re being promoted does your race matter....and become hispanic or Latina....
They’re “white” when they’re criminals, and “latino/a” when being considered for benefits, or a SC justice. There is a group in this country whose top priority is to “take whitey down”. They just don’t seem to know, when they destroy whites, they can look forward to the kind of “culture” and “civilisation” seen in Haiti, Zimbabwe, South Africa in recent decades, Detroit, Cleveland, and for that matter, Mexico. So the last laugh’s on them.
link to perp’s picture: http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/05/search_led_to_arrest_in_gorge.html
27 years is not enough. Not for multiple rapes.
He’ll probably be out earlier for good behavior.
Saw that they caught him on the news KATU.
Where has he been I wonder in 2009. It seems according to the article he took a break from his crimes at the end of 2008. Or did I misread something.
I know the news reports back then was that his crimes were getting more violent and it was feared he would murder his victems.
Also in Salem some guy walked up to three teens sitting on a park bench in broad daylight accused them of being from another gang and shot them all, one died and the other park go ers where just shocked/terrified.
BTW the teens were not gang affliated they totally denied that in the hosp. and two of the teens had been buddies since early childhood.
We are so use to the peace filled life here at the coast in our rural area just going to the State Fair makes me nervous.
But gotta go as KV has been waiting for years to see Mark Lowry and the Gaither Bros. (they usually stay in the South for concerts)
Last years State Fair (our first time ever going) had another of his faves, Wierd Al Yankovic and it was all good plus they go through all your bags/purses/his WC back pack even to do saftey checks.
I even noticed up north at Chinook Winds the tough punks showing up now and then Hispanic macho punks. The black tourists are not of that stupid punk mentality like in Oakland/bay area Cali (were I grew up).
Very different up here nice to see that, but I have seen the thug type in NE Portland, still not as bad as Cali. Blacks here integrate with whites without the hate whitey attitude, esp when they are here on vacation.
Thank you for the post and ping!
I have to ask...why haven’t I heard about this crime spree before now?
Charlie Daniels chimes in:
http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2009/soapbox-2009-0504.htm
Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready To Rumble?
There’s a battle on America’s horizon, a battle for the heart and soul of our beloved nation.
Now I know it sounds trite and jingoistic to say there’s a battle for the heart and soul of America. It’s not a new phrase and has been used many times to describe many different situations that have come to pass in our history.
But the battle I’m describing may well be worthy of the description.
Why? Because at the heart of America, above all other purposes is freedom, freedom to do and speak as we wish, to live where we want to, the right to bear arms, to have our votes counted fairly and to be protected from enemies, foreign and domestic.
And regardless of how liberals try to twist it, the soul of America is based on Judeo-Christian values.
There is a bill currently working it’s way through the House of Representatives that purports to be about hate crimes but it is a thinly masked effort by politicians to take away another facet of our freedom and if passed by both houses could well inhibit any minister of the gospel from preaching the word of God as he or she interprets it.
If a preacher preaches against homosexuality that preacher could face time in prison, because under this law it would be considered a hate crime.
Actually this bill has little to do with hate crimes, whatever they are, and a lot to do with the suppression of free speech by Christians.
The far left political wing of this nation hates Christians because the have the audacity to actually practice their beliefs rather than yield to expediency and go along with the crowd.
Muslims are against homosexuality and abortion and probably condemn it openly in their mosques, but don’t hold your breath until they’re attacked for it.
In actuality the left doesn’t care what the Islamic world does, they just want to silence the Christians.
I am not speaking for the Christian world, only myself, but let me tell you how I feel about.
I think that for too long we have misinterpreted Jesus’ statement to turn the other cheek. I don’t believe he meant to let evil seep into every crevice of America because of it.
I believe that the day of the passive Christian is over if we are to hang on to our faith. I believe that if Christians don’t band together and stand up for what we believe in, the current administration and Congress will leech away our right to preach the gospel unimpeded.
And then what will be the difference between the old Soviet Union and the United States of America?
They’re coming after your freedom, your money and your guns and they will try to indoctrinate your children into a Godless socialistic society where the state is supreme and the individual doesn’t count.
And what they can’t get passed through Congress will be made into law by the federal judges Obama will appoint during his presidency.
Well I for one will not go down without a fight.
Are you ready to rumble?
It’s coming.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
©Copyright The Charlie Daniels Band
I’m with Charlie, 100%!!
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