He took a mother’s van for a test drive. Then he sexually assaulted her daughter, cops say
A Collier County man is behind bars after going to a Lake Worth home to test drive a van and sexually assaulting the 15-year-old daughter of the vehicle’s owner, deputies say.
David Perez Domingo, 37, faces two charges — lewd and lascivious battery and sexual battery of a victim between 12-17. He was booked into a Palm Beach County jail Monday where he remains on $275,000 bond.
It took the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office more than a year to charge Perez Domingo, who the teenage girl says raped her on Jan. 7, 2018, according to the arrest report.
Deputies say Perez Domingo called the 15-year-old’s mother around 12 p.m. that day to test drive a van being sold at her home. The mother wasn’t home so she sent her daughter to accompany him. The two left the house at roughly 1:30 p.m. and wouldn’t return for hours.
The girl said the man stopped for beer twice during the test drive, offering her one, which she reluctantly drank, the report said. They continued driving around for approximately another hour before Perez Domingo parked and got into the back seat with her. That’s when the assault began, the report continued.
“She screamed for help, and no one heard,” the deputy wrote. “[The teen] said she also kicked the male, but he was stronger than her.”
Perez Domingo took her home at approximately 6 p.m. On the way, he told the teen “not to call the police because, ‘I love you,’ ” according to the report.
When the mother returned home that night, she found her daughter “distraught and crying.” It wasn’t until the following day that the teen told her.
Using DNA from a 2015 arrest, a rape kit helped detectives home in on Perez Domingo. The report said the 34-year-old had been charged with aggravated battery in Hendry County, yet court records show no evidence of this case. A subsequent review of court documents shows no prior arrests in Collier, Hendry or Palm Beach counties.
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 7:48 PM.
