News

From the wee hours of Sunday morning up until Monday night, the UC Berkeley grounds and the area directly south of campus saw a combined total of three sexual battery crimes, two in which a student and parent were victimized.

In each of the three cases, one suspect — who was positively identified by the victim — was arrested by responding UCPD officers within minutes of the sexual battery.

The first incident occurred on campus at about 1:06 a.m. Sunday when a non-affiliated female was walking home through the Eucalyptus Grove, a site that has seen its share of sex crimes in the past year. While the victim was crossing the west bridge of Grinnell Pathway, a man approached her and asked for directions, according to a UCPD crime alert. When she began to give him directions, the suspect grabbed her groin area and breasts.

The victim then screamed and fled toward Oxford Street, where she flagged down a UCPD Security Patrol Officer who radioed the department with a description of the suspect. At around 1:18 a.m., UCPD officers spotted an individual who matched the description on the east side of Haas Pavilion heading toward Bancroft Way and detained 32-year-old Edward Mosqueda, according to UCPD Lt. Marc Decoulode, spokesperson for the department. The victim and a witness positively identified the suspect, who was then taken into custody at the Berkeley Police Department jail facility.

In April, the Eucalyptus Grove saw two separate incidents of sexual battery and one incident of sexual assault that occurred within the same week — two of which occurred within the same hour. There were at least five cases of sex crimes in the grove in the spring and two during all of last fall semester.

“I don’t know if I’d say it’s common, but it does happen there,” Decoulode said.

In the second Sunday morning incident, a UC Berkeley parent was moving her son into the dorms at Unit 3 when a man approached her from behind. While she was standing on the sidewalk watching over her son’s property, the suspect came up to her and grabbed her between the legs over her clothing, according to Decoulode.

The victim then struck the man with her purse and exchanged a few words with him as he fled, Decoulode said. When the suspect walked away, the victim flagged down a nearby UCPD Community Services Officer who radioed the department.

While the responding UCPD officer was talking to the “very distraught” victim, the suspect walked across the street, and the victim pointed him out, Decoulode said.

UCPD officers then detained 42-year-old Ruben Palate, according a UCPD crime alert. Berkeley police officers then arrived and took custody of the suspect.

The third incident occurred Monday night at about 9 p.m. near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Bowditch Street. While walking down the 2600 block of Durant with two friends, a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student was approached by a man from behind and grabbed inappropriately, according to a UCPD crime alert. UCPD responded to the scene and detained an individual, who matched the description of the suspect, at the intersection of Bowditch and Haste Street — about two blocks south of the site of the crime.

The suspect, Torra Lewis, 49, was positively identified by the victim and taken into custody by BPD.

None of the victims were injured during the encounters.

View Sexual batteries 8/21/2011 – 8/22/2011 to see where the crimes occurred.

Stephanie Baer is the city news editor.

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