U.S. Drops Bid to Try Alleged Rapist : Courts: Atty. Gen. Reno says double-jeopardy protection bars charging the Mexican in California.

The United States is abandoning efforts to extradite a Mexican national in the rape of a 4-year-old Riverside County girl after concluding that the protection against double jeopardy bars trying him in California, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said Thursday.

However, Reno said she understands that Mexico is appealing to toughen the 31 1/2-year sentence Serapio Zuniga Rios received from a Mexican court. Mexico refused to extradite Zuniga, who fled to his homeland and was arrested there in December.

“We have checked and double-checked and have concluded that double jeopardy would prevent the extradition and trial in California,” Reno said at her weekly meeting with reporters.

A Justice Department spokesman said that attorneys from the Office of International Affairs had been told by Riverside prosecutors that California bars double jeopardy and that Zuniga could not be prosecuted under state law if he were brought back to the United States.

In September, 1992, Zuniga allegedly kidnaped the child from her parents’ ranch and sexually assaulted her, then wrapped her in a blanket that he hung from a tree. In addition to the brutality of the crime, the case became involved in the NAFTA vote and was a sore point in U.S.-Mexican relations. Zuniga was allegedly enraged over being fired from the ranch.

Mexico has never extradited one of its citizens to the United States for trial, and late last month, the Mexican government notified the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City that Zuniga had been tried in secret and convicted of sexual assault, abduction, burglary and imprisoned there.

Robert S. Gelbard of the State Department said on the eve of a two-day meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials May 9 that “we are deeply shocked and disappointed by the Mexican government’s actions.”

“The Mexican government has known from the beginning that we have considered the Zuniga Rios case to be of fundamental importance,” he said. “We thought we had complete assurances from the Mexican government . . . that this man would be extradited. . . . If they are not prepared to extradite Zuniga Rios under the assurances we have gotten, under what circumstances are they going to extradite anyone?”

A senior State Department official, insisting on anonymity, went further. “They lied to us,” he said. “There was amazement, horror and real anger when we learned what they had done.”

The case became a NAFTA issue when Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) said he had swung his vote to support the trade agreement in November only after Mexico’s then-attorney general personally assured him that the suspect would be extradited.

But Reno tried to downplay any problem with Mexico over the case, saying she had been told only that Zuniga would be extradited if a court ordered the extradition.

“I’ve expressed concern to the government of Mexico and told them that it is important that we move on and develop action and move forward on matters of concern to us,” she said.