The city was rocked in 2007 by waves of crime that spurred
mothers to clutch children close to them and caused joggers on the
levee to look over their shoulders.
The city was rocked in 2007 by waves of crime that spurred mothers to clutch children close to them and caused joggers on the levee to look over their shoulders.
A series of spring sexual assaults by strangers, including a brazen rape near Gilroy High School on the levee in May, and a fall rash of suspicious incidents involving men following children were the main concern of residents. However, the most surprising singular crimes could have been the grisly downtown murder of a 56-year-old and the alleged attempted murder of a police officer by the son of a former 16-year councilman.
Between all these incidents were more than a dozen attempted murders, shootings and stabbings – many of them gang-related.
While arrests have been made in connection with some of these incidents, many of the marquee crimes remain unsolved.
Spring stranger rapes
A mile-long stretch of the levee and Christmas Hill became the focus of attention in April and May as a result of three stranger rapes of young teens.
On April 14, a 14-year-old boy was raped multiple times by a stranger who offered him a ride to the library, but ended up taking him to the park amphitheater. Two weeks later, on April 25, a 15-year-old girl was raped in the same amphitheater by a stranger she met on the levee.
Bringing the issue to a head, a 16-year-old girl was knocked unconscious and raped May 22 in broad daylight on the levee behind Gilroy High School. Police did not inform high school administrators of the attack or the previous attacks, raising questions of as to the lack of communication between the two organizations.
In the following three weeks, a 22-year-old woman reported an attempted rape on the Brownell Middle School campus after school hours and a 12-year-old was raped behind a Wren Avenue health clinic. After that, there were no stranger rapes reported until the fall. Regarding these two attacks, one victim recanted her report and the other was slipping in and out of consciousness and was not sure if she was attacked, according to police.
Descriptions of the suspects in all these cases vary widely. As of December, police had not made any arrests in connection with the assaults. However, they did have one suspect in the rape of the 12-year-old and recommended him for prosecution with the county district attorney’s office. As of Jan. 4, no charges have been brought against the suspect.
Men following children in fall
While the sexual assaults quieted down during the summer months, worries were revived as reports of suspicious incidents – primarily men in vehicles following boys and girls – rushed in.
About once every two weeks from early August to mid-November, there was a report of a man approaching, following or propositioning a child. In some cases, the men told the child to get into the vehicle or asked them if they wanted a ride. In one incident, the man touched a boy while he was walking between classrooms at Rucker Elementary School.
As with the stranger rapes, the descriptions of the suspects and their vehicles varied widely. However, one man was arrested in connection with two of the possible attempted kidnappings.
Jose David Gonzalez-Raygoza, 26, was arrested Nov. 9 after he approached and followed a 15-year-old high school student after she got out of class. He appeared three times during a three-hour period, including once while police were interviewing the girl. After the arrest, he confessed to following the girl and to following three other girls, one of which might have been a 10-year-old girl who lived near Glen View Elementary School.
On Dec. 17, Gonzalez-Raygoza pleaded guilty to annoying or molesting a minor – a misdemeanor. In exchange, the district attorney agreed to drop the second count of the same crime and to let Gonzalez-Raygoza off without jail time. However, as the 26-year-old is an illegal immigrant, he was deported following his release.
The only murder of the year
Early in the morning of April 29, 56-year-old Juan Lugo was found in an alley behind La Colonia Latina, located on Monterey Street between Eighth and Old Gilroy streets. Lugo, whose body was riddled with stab wounds, lay next to his bluish 10-speed bicycle, on which he was known to circle downtown, neighbors and police said.
Police have been unable to find a motive for the killing. Lugo, from whom nothing was stolen – not even the cash in his wallet – was widely rumored to be gay, Lugo’s son said, but police have not investigated the case as a hate crime.
In mid-May, police arrested 21-year-old Tomas Martinez Romero and turned him over to the district attorney, who charged him with murder. However, the charge was dropped two months later. Romero is now being charged with two counts of attempted murder and other charges in an unrelated shooting.
The investigation has been hampered because of the lack of Spanish-speaking police and the abundance of Spanish-speaking witnesses, police said. Police did not have any suspects in the case as of Jan. 4.
An officer’s escape from death
On a quiet night in mid-November, officer John Ballard looked down the barrel of a handgun as the 28-year-old man on the other end pulled the trigger multiple times.
Ballard escaped death that night because the gun jammed – a result of improperly loaded bullets. However, the man who pulled the trigger, Pete Joseph Valdez III, now faces the possibility of life in prison. He was charged in November with attempted murder of a police officer, assault of a police officer, delaying or resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
During a post-incident interview, Valdez broke down in tears and said he did not want to live, according to a police report. The reason he pulled the gun on Ballard was because he wanted police to shoot him, he continued.
Valdez – the son of Pete Joseph Valdez Jr., who served 16 years on Gilroy’s city council – has a history with police. He was convicted on three felonies charges when he was 18 – second-degree robbery, accessory to a felony and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was also convicted of trespassing in 2006 and driving under the influence in 2007.
Valdez has not yet entered a plea on the current charges, but is next scheduled to appear in court Jan. 22.
