Police: Middletown rape victim said ‘no’ before alleged assault

When a 19-year-old Middletown man and a 17-year-old girl became intimate, she told him “no” before she was assaulted, according to the testimony of a Middletown police detective.

Middletown Police Detective Jon Rawlins testified that Yony Gomez admitted to sexually assaulting a girl April 4 at his home in the Robin Springs Apartments on Brandywine Street.

Gomez is charged with rape, a first-degree felony. After the preliminary hearing Wednesday afternoon, Middletown Municipal Court Judge James Sherron bound the case over to a Warren County grand jury.

Throughout the hearing, Gomez was assisted by translator Roxana Hazlett.

Rawlins testified that when he interviewed Gomez after the alleged sexual assault, a female dispatcher, who speaks Spanish, was present. Attorney Matthew Dixon questioned whether Gomez understood the interrogation, and Rawlins said the two held a lengthy conservation.

Rawlins testified that Gomez and the girl had breakfast at a local restaurant, then went shopping. He asked her to come back to his apartment to meet some family and friends, Rawlins said. But no one was home. They played video games and started kissing, Rawlins said.

Then Gomez took off his clothes and the girl’s clothes and assaulted her, police said. After the alleged assault, Gomez told the girl he was sorry, Rawlins said.

After the alleged assault, Gomez blocked his bedroom door so the girl couldn’t leave, Rawlins said. She was able to leave and drove to a shopping center and called her mother, police said.

Police removed numerous items, including clothing, a towel and bedding from the apartment. Police also found “different piles of cash” in the apartment, the report said. More than $2,000 in cash was located, police said.

After the hearing, Gomez was led back to the Middletown City Jail in shackles and Sherron kept his bond at $50,000.

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