Monday, September 3, 2007

Judge considers immigrant a danger to the community, denies him bond

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

A 21-year-old illegal immigrant charged with breaking into two women’s apartments early Christmas morning and trying to sexually assault them was denied release on bond Wednesday after a judge branded him a danger to the community.

“Mr. Dubon, it’s safe to say, is lacking in community ties,” Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt said of Christian Rene Dubon, 7710 Tara Circle in East Naples, who admitted he’d been here a year illegally. “He appears to be a danger for repeatedly attempting to enter houses and commit batteries.”

Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports say Dubon broke into two apartments early Christmas morning, even returning to the second apartment after a woman told him to leave. Reports say the first victim told deputies he’d tried to enter her home seven weeks earlier.

Dubon is charged with two counts of burglary with intent to commit sexual battery and offering to commit prostitution or a lewd act. He faces a maximum of life in prison on the top charges, first-degree felonies; the other charge is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The victims’ names are being withheld due to the nature of the crimes and their addresses and the general area where the crimes occurred was deleted from reports, which give the following account:

Deputies were called to an apartment at 3:38 a.m. Dec. 25 by a woman who said she was awakened by a man who grabbed her breasts. She said she’d fallen asleep on her sofa and forgot to lock the front door. She screamed for her husband, who was in the bedroom sleeping — prompting the intruder to “calmly” walk out the front door. When her husband checked what was wrong, he was gone.

She said that seven weeks earlier, he came to her sliding glass door and asked to see her. She said she didn’t know him, thought he was drunk and had the wrong apartment, so she told him to leave. Then her husband yelled at him and he left.

Deputies couldn’t find the man and the woman asked for extra patrols at her apartment.

Minutes later, at 4:46 a.m., they received a call about a burglary in progress from a woman who was screaming as she called the 911 operator. When deputies arrived, they found the front door locked and checked the rear, where the sliding glass door was open.

As a deputy approached, a Hispanic male came out from behind the closed blinds and attempted to leave the unenclosed lanai. He appeared surprised to see the deputy, who told him to stop in English and Spanish, but he refused. So the deputy aimed his Taser at the man’s right side, causing him to drop to the ground and comply with his orders. He was then arrested.

The woman told the deputy she’d been asleep in bed when the man entered her apartment through an unsecured rear sliding glass door. He grabbed her feet and tried to attack her, so she politely told him to leave. Instead, he edged toward her. She told him not to touch her, saying her husband would be home soon. The suspect acted as if he didn’t understand, prompting her to push him and threaten to call police.

He left, but soon returned through the open sliding glass door. He exposed himself and said, “Just pequeño?” — meaning he wanted just a little sex — and showed her some cash in his wallet. She said he was “very persistent,” so she went to the bathroom to call 911 and he followed, then left, only to be arrested as he was walking out.

The first woman positively identified him as the man who’d broken into her apartment and who tried to seven weeks earlier.

In court Wednesday, Dubon’s public defender, Shawn Nagle, had asked that his $505,000 bond be reduced to $30,000, saying Dubon had been unable to get out of jail since his arrest because he couldn’t afford to post bond, but he could pay $3,000 (the required 10 percent for $30,000).

If released, Nagle said, a relative, a pastor at a local Christian church, offered to allow him to stay at his home, and his former employer, Cummins & Raj, was willing to hire him back as a mechanic. Nagle said Dubon also would be willing to wear a GPS (Global Positioning System) electronic ankle monitor to track his whereabouts, which costs $13 daily.

But Assistant State Attorney Steve Maresca successfully argued against any reduction, saying Dubon had only worked here eight months before his arrest and was here illegally from Honduras.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/aug/08/judge_considers_immigrant_danger_community_denies_/?breaking_news

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