A former Sierra Vista resident charged with sexual assault whom police say had sexual relations with a minor about 30 years ago impregnated the victim when she was only 12 years old, a police report shows.
Sierra Vista Police detectives say the sexual trysts between Rene Tapia and the victim occurred when Tapia was 23 or 24. They were neighbors at the time.
Tapia, now 54, was arrested in February after the U.S. Marshals Service found him in Idaho. Based on the police report, Tapia is married and has a family.
The victim did not come forward until May 2014. She said she finally wanted to report the situation because she was suffering with post traumatic stress disorder after keeping her ordeal quiet for so many years.
Her story, based on the report and several supplements, reads like a tragic novel.
The victim said that when she was 12, her father was in prison and she was living with a drug-addicted mother. Tapia moved into the apartment next to the victim’s and soon the two hit it off.
The victim said she started hanging out with the older man and she developed a crush on him because he gave her attention. Within three weeks of knowing each other, the youngster and Tapia began having sex, the report shows.
After seven or eight months of intercourse, the victim learned that she was three months pregnant, the report shows. She told her mother and she decided to keep her baby after giving birth to the child when she was just 13, the report says.
According to one supplemental report, detectives spoke with Tapia in 2015. He did not deny having sex with the victim and getting her pregnant.
Police obtained a warrant for Tapia, but were unable to locate him, Sierra Vista Police spokesman Cpl. Scott Borgstadt said recently.
When they learned he was in Idaho, detectives had to obtain another warrant — a nationwide one — and with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service, Tapia was nabbed and brought to Cochise County on Feb. 26.
He remains in custody at the Cochise County Jail on $100,000 bond. Two weeks ago at his arraignment he pleaded not guilty.
A judge told Tapia that if he did post bail, he could not contact the victim and he cannot leave Arizona.
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