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Oct 20, 2005 1:37 am US/Pacific
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Suspected Berkeley Rapist Tied To Other Attacks
BERKELEY (Bay City News) ―
A 25-year-old Berkeley man originally facing seven felony rape counts for a Berkeley sexual assault in May has been charged with several more felony counts after DNA linked him to three East Bay sexual assaults, Oakland police announced Wednesday.
Transient Israel Bustamonte faces a total of 18 felony sexual assault-related counts by the Alameda County District Attorney's office, the Oakland Police Department reports. Physical evidence has connected Bustamonte to three rapes that occurred in Oakland between September 2004 and February 2005, according to Oakland police.
Prosecutors say Bustamonte's first and third attacks occurred in the 400 block of Harrison Street in Oakland. The second Oakland attack allegedly took place in the 1250 block of Fifth Street, police report.
In the Oakland attacks, the victims were allegedly grabbed from behind, forced to the ground, raped and then robbed of their belongings. All cases took place in broad daylight, according to police.
Bustamonte was arrested by Berkeley police on Aug. 29 for a rape that took place in that city, according to Berkeley Public Information Officer Joe Okies.
In that incident the victim was allegedly grabbed from behind at around 6 p.m., pulled into the bushes, forced to disrobe and then raped.
Directly after Bustamonte's arrest, Okies said the case against Bustamonte began to take shape within days of the crime when Officer Rob Westerhoff, the beat officer for the area where the rape occurred, saw a sketch of the suspect and was reminded of a false imprisonment case he had handled in December 2004 involving Bustamonte.
Based on details of that case and the description of the suspect in the May 22 case, investigators began looking for Bustamonte as a person of interest, Okies said.
Several days after the rape, Westerhoff found Bustamonte standing in the area of Fourth and Hearst streets in Berkeley, several blocks from where the rape had occurred, Okies said. That contact helped to move the case forward, he said.
There wasn't enough evidence at that time to arrest Bustamonte for the Aquatic Park incident, but shortly thereafter he was arrested in Santa Clara County for an unrelated incident.
Because Bustamonte was in custody, Berkeley police had time to develop their case against him.
Once in custody by Berkeley police, the Oakland Police Department sexual assault investigators began to look at Bustamonte as a possible suspect in their unsolved cases because he "matched the physical description and modus operandi as described by the Berkeley Police Department," according to a statement by the Oakland Police Department.
(Bay City News)