A rape kit wasn’t tested for 23 years. Then it was, and cops just made an arrest
When she woke up that January morning more than two decades ago, the scared 17-year-old didn’t know where she was or how she got there and why her panties were next to her on the bed.
She frantically called her boyfriend and then reported the incident to Coral Springs police. The teen told police she went out with a friend and “two of her associates” she knew as Booda and Nick, according to police records.
She remembered taking a “roofie” pill and drinking shots of Sex on the Beach. She was examined and interviewed. The men were identified and told cops different versions of what happened sometime between Jan. 7 and 8, 1996.
Then the case went cold.
That was until recently, when Coral Springs detectives began reviewing old cases and realized the girl’s rape kit was never submitted for testing. On Monday, police announced the arrest of Ruben Chavez, 55, saying there was now DNA evidence linking him to the 23-year-old crime.
At the time of the rape, “SVU Detectives conducted an investigation but unfortunately the evidence recovered was not enough to positively identify the person responsible for the crime,” the department said in a news release Monday.
Then in April several items, including the rape kit, “were identified and sent to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab for processing utilizing current technology,” the department said.
According to a police report at the time, the teen, identified as M.G., and her friend — whose name is redacted from the arrest report — met “Nick” at Mullins Park in Coral Springs. Nick told the girls to follow him to La Quinta Inn in Coral Springs to meet his friend Booda, police said. The men then gave the teens each a Rohypnol tablet, otherwise known as a roofie, according to police reports. Rohypnol is also known as a date-rape drug.
The teen told police at the time that they went to a pool hall and drank several alcoholic beverages. The last thing she remembered was calling her boyfriend. When she woke up at 5:30 a.m. Jan. 8. she saw her panties and a used condom, according to the report. Her friend was in the bed next to her. The teen told police that she was a virgin.
Detectives soon identified Nick as Chavez and Booda as Jamil Georgeon. They interviewed the men, but never made an arrest.
After getting the DNA match in June, detectives went back to the victim, who now lives in Maine. She said she wanted to continue with the prosecution. Police also spoke to the friend who was there that night.
“Following an extensive investigation, and after obtaining additional evidence, Chavez was successfully taken into custody without incident in the city of Boca Raton... by the U.S. Marshals Task Force,” police said Monday. “Chavez refused to provide a statement after he was taken into custody.”
Chavez, who has been arrested in the past on charges including drug possession, trafficking and possession of cocaine and fleeing and eluding from law enforcement personnel, was charged with one count of sexual battery on a helpless victim under 18, jail records show.
He is being held in Broward’s main jail with no bond.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 8:19 PM.
