Posted on 04/29/2005 3:32:14 PM PDT by SmithL
OAKLAND - The adult son of Oakland City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente was arrested today on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl two weeks ago, police said.
Accompanied by an attorney, Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., 32, of Redwood City surrendered at Oakland police headquarters at 12:10 a.m.
Police Officer Danielle Ashford said he was booked on charges of forcible rape and kidnapping.
The alleged assault occurred April 16 in Oakland's Fruitvale district. Ashford said the victim was a 15-year-old girl, but she declined to divulge other details about the case or whether the girl and De La Fuente Jr. knew each other. Ashford said that physical evidence had linked De La Fuente Jr. to the girl.
De La Fuente Jr., the older of the councilman's two grown children, was jailed without bail and will likely make his first court appearance in the case early next week. His defense lawyer wasn't immediately available for comment today.
Ashford said the investigation into the case is continuing. It will be up to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office to decide what charges, if any, to file against De La Fuente Jr.
In a news conference this morning, City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente said that he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life.
"I pray and hope that he has done nothing wrong," he said. "I pray for him and for the other person who might be involved in this."
De La Fuente said he learned Thursday that his son was being sought by police and that he had immediately urged him to surrender.
The councilman said today he will not involve himself in the case.
"Let me be absolutely and totally clear that I expect the system to work just like for any other person," he said. "I'm not stepping in at all; he's an adult.
"If he did something wrong then the system has to take care of that."
Asked how the criminal case against his son might impact his own run for mayor, De La Fuente replied, "That's the last thing on my mind at this point."
Court records show De La Fuente Jr. currently has a misdemeanor drunken driving case pending in Alameda County Superior Court. The court records also state that he was convicted of misdemeanor auto theft in October 1993 and a misdemeanor charge of giving false information to a peace officer in October 2001.
The Father is the same guy who stopped the Drunk Driving road checks cause the Oakland cops were finding too many ILLEGAL ALIENS.
link = http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/09/oakland_halts_d.php
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