Ex-Deputy in Rape Case Held on 2nd Charge

A former Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy scheduled to begin a prison term for kidnaping and raping a 13-year-old girl while on duty has been jailed in Torrance on suspicion of robbing and raping a 65-year-old woman, authorities said Friday.

Rick Alan Gonzales, 31, of Sunnymead was arrested Wednesday afternoon on the basis of information from the victim, who apparently recognized him as a former neighbor, Torrance Police Lt. Harvey Siegel said.

Gonzales was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Torrance police said the woman fired a shot during the struggle when she was attacked last Saturday, but the bullet grazed her neck and the intruder raped and robbed her.

Convicted in 1983

Robert Spitzer, supervising deputy district attorney for special prosecutions in Riverside County, said Gonzales was convicted by a jury in August, 1983, for rape, oral copulation, cruelty to a child, kidnaping and two counts of lewd acts with a teen-age girl, who was a runaway.

The jurors found that Gonzales abducted the girl from a convenience store in December, 1982, drove her to a remote area and assaulted her in the back seat of his patrol car. He threatened to harm her if she told anyone, but she finally reported the incident.

Spitzer said the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigated and fired Gonzales, who, after his conviction, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison. His appeal was denied last month and he has filed for a writ of habeas corpus, asking a Superior Court judge to overturn the jury verdict on the grounds of alleged errors. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for May 3.