LAUGHLIN—A local man was arraigned Thursday in federal court on charges related to an alleged sexual assault of a woman inside a Laughlin casino hotel room.
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson said Richard Anthony Hernandez, 23, is being charged with one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of aggravated sexual abuse.
Hernandez was arrested on Wednesday and appeared the following day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl W. Hoffman, who ordered him detained pending trial.
According to press release from the Department of Justice, the complaint alleges on Tuesday, Sept. 24, Hernandez and a woman, who is a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribe, entered a room together at the Avi Resort & Casino in Laughlin.
It is alleged, Hernandez repeatedly struck the victim in her face and body, and sexually assaulted her in the room.
Officers from the Fort Mojave Tribal Police Department reportedly noticed the room was in disarray with blood spatter on the walls and near the door, along with blood on the beds.
Hernandez was interviewed, and subsequently arrested by federal authorities, after speaking with the victim and reviewing the hotel’s surveillance footage. The victim reportedly had numerous injuries consistent with having been assaulted.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 11. The maximum statutory penalty for Aggravated Sexual Abuse is up to life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine and the maximum statutory penalty for Assault Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury is up to ten years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Fort Mohave Tribal Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip N. Smith Jr. is prosecuting the case.
they should blast his face so women can be ware
Isn’t it slander when making accusations without proven facts. Blast her face or give her name so people can see what shes about. I know many of her kind of natives that use tribes has leverage. She took him there with what intentions “to sit n chat”. Come on hes handsome and didn’t need that female for sex.
These females should stop lying on these menjust cause they can’t get there way!! people should get facts before they judge especially when she threatened to do this too him and claimed she’d get away with it cuzz of native would back her!! He’s got too many females on him to ever have to rape anyone that’s not him period!!!! ??????