A guy from Palm Beach County is due to appear in Broward County for a pretrial detention hearing on Tuesday, one week after being arrested on several sexual battery accusations.
Miguel Sales Mendez, 22, of Lake Worth Beach, is accused of raping a mentally challenged 23-year-old woman he met online in the game “Free Fighter,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by Local 10 News on Monday.
According to police, the incident occurred in early September in Fort Lauderdale. According to them, the victim had “the mental capacity of a 12-year-old child.”
As per the arrest request, Sales Mendez and the woman chatted for months over WhatsApp after meeting digitally through the game in June.
According to police, he agreed to meet the woman on the afternoon of Sept. 9 and texted her that he would “take her to a’magical place.'”
The woman was “scared” to go with Sales Mendez, according to the warrant, but he “threaten(ed) to come into the house by force if she did not come out to him.”
According to authorities, the woman, who lives with her parents, was able to flee after receiving the threat.
The warrant states, that he then drove the woman to 1350 NE 56th St., parked his car, forced her out, and directed her to go to a location with “bushes and palm trees” and turn off her smartphone.
According to investigators, he then raped her.
After the assault, Sales Mendez, “who was in a hurry,” placed the victim in the bushes behind the building and drove away.
According to police, the victim, who a forensic examiner subsequently stated “did not know what sex was,” contacted 911 and was examined at a hospital.
DNA from a rape kit matched DNA recovered from Sales Mendez during a traffic stop in Palm Beach County after officials secured a warrant to collect a sample, according to police.
Sales Mendez was arrested on three counts of sexual battery on a mentally disabled person and was being held without bond at the Broward Sheriff’s Office Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach on Monday.
According to jail records, the Guatemalan national was also detained on an immigration hold.