Public Safety
Bartender Suspected of Raping Hotel Patron Behind Bars
A bartender accused of raping an unconscious patron in her room after serving the victim and her mother drinks for several hours at a Palm Springs hotel was behind bars Friday.
Alejandro Adan, 29, was arrested Thursday afternoon, hours after Judge Anthony Villalobos issued a warrant for his arrest. Adan was charged May 2 with assault with intent to commit rape, burglary, sexual penetration when victim is unconscious, sexual penetration with a foreign object, rape of an unconscious victim, rape upon intoxicated person and petty theft.
Adan was originally arrested the night of March 3 when officers were sent to the Rowan Hotel in the 100 block of West Tahquitz Canyon. When they arrived, Adan was found inside a hotel room where the woman was allegedly sexually assaulted, according to Palm Springs police.
Adan was booked into the Larry D. Correctional facility in Banning about 2:30 a.m. March 4, but he was released on $110,000 bail two days later.
According to court documents, the victim and her mother were drinking at the hotel’s pool from 1 to 4:30 p.m. March 3, with Adan serving the pair alcoholic beverages under the name “Alex.”
The mother told the police the bartender was “friendly, flirted with the victim and asked to see them after work; however due to the victim’s intoxicated state,” the mother took her daughter back to her hotel room.
At some point, the unidentified victim lost her wallet, which Adan delivered to the women’s adjoining rooms later in the day, according to court documents. After taking a shower and falling asleep, the victim said her “next memory was awakening in bed with a male lying behind her,” the court papers state.
Adan was interviewed by police and he allegedly admitted stealing the victim’s room key and entering the room without an invitation, as well as sexually assaulting the woman, according to court documents.
The suspect said that after initially going to the room to return the woman’s wallet, he returned a second and third time, authorities claim in court papers. During the second visit, he suggested that the victim’s mother and her husband attend the hotel’s happy hour at the bar.
On his third visit, Adan said he saw the victim’s mother leaving to meet her husband in the lobby. When the woman’s parents came back to their room some time later, they saw their daughter “wrapped in a towel, crying and yelling a man was in her room,” according to court documents.
The parents then entered the room to find Adan “buttoning his shorts and tightening his belt,” according to court records. While the mother went to contact the police, the victim’s father stayed with Adan in the room.
While waiting for police, Adan allegedly told the father, “I don’t know, I totally messed up.”
If convicted of the charges, Adan could face a life sentence, according to Riverside County District Attorney’s Office spokesman John Hall.
Jail records show he is due back in court on Monday.
By: NBC Palm Springs
May 10, 2019
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