An employee at the Simpson Ridge Apartment complex in Kissimmee was arrested and placed into the Osceola County Jail on Thursday after being accused of raping a 70-year-old woman in her own apartment, the sheriff’s office said.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez explained in a video released that 42-year-old Freddy Rodrigo LaFuente is facing charges of sexual battery and molestation of the elderly.
“This individual works for an apartment complex where our victim lives,” Lopez said. “He goes into the apartment to do some work, small talk, befriends her, at one point he decides to tell her that he loves her, and he’s been in love with her.”
According to the sheriff, LaFuente was a maintenance man at the apartment complex and had known the victim for about a year before allegedly sexually attacking the woman. Lopez said that the suspect threw the woman onto a bed, forcing her clothes off and raping her.
After LaFuente left, the sheriff said the woman locked herself in her bathroom fearing that LaFuente would return. The woman was found unconscious by her granddaughter who had reached out to maintenance workers to help her unresponsive grandmother. One of the maintenance workers that helped the granddaughter was LaFuente, according to records.
Once at a local hospital, the woman identified LaFuente who was placed under arrest at the apartment complex the next morning.
“This is a sick man, but guess what, I commend our victim for coming forward. This behavior is wrong,” Sheriff Lopez said. “She’s brave. She spoke out against him, and now he’s been arrested and booked in the Osceola County jail, where he should be, for his crime.”
He is currently in the Osceola County jail with a $55,000 bond.
