26-year-old Kenneth Duane Bridges of Morgan Hill was arrested on Wednesday, Dec 17, by the San Jose Police Department for PC 459-460(a) first degree burglary, in which the defendant was also charged with the crime of rape by force, under PC 261(a)(2), violence, duress, menace and or fear in which he forced the victim to have sexual intercourse with him causing unlawful bodily injury. Bridges faces twelve felony counts, and his sentencing, if convicted, will reflect five separate prior convictions of robbery under PC 211.
It was reported that Bridges had entered the occupied dwelling and had perpetrated acts, forcing two female subjects to submit to acts of rape, sodomy, anal penetration with a foreign object, assault with a deadly weapon/force likely to produce great bodily injury, oral copulation, criminal threats, assault with the intent to commit rape, sexual battery, false imprisonment, and kidnapping.
SART exams were taken from both victims at Valley Medical Center with as Sexual Assault Investigators from the San Jose Police Department began to collect physical evidence in order to help identify the suspect involved in the rape.
One victim told investigators that her attacker had been a black male, whom was at least 6”2’ tall and 180 pounds.
The victim described how her bedroom window had been broken by the suspect as he entered her room. Bridges reportedly attacked the female resident and then attacked her roommate. She remembered hearing her roommate screaming, “Stop raping me, it hurts, it hurts.” The victim watched helplessly as her service dog was thrown against the bedroom wall, causing the dog to yelp.
As the second victim tried to escape, while outside of the home the suspect chased after her, pushing her to the ground. He then dragged her by her hair back inside the residence, where she faded in and out of consciousness during the attack. But while the second victim and suspect were outside the residence, the first victim was able to locate her cell phone and call police. The second victim was not able to fully recover until police arrived at the home, when officers contacted Bridges, and had placed him in handcuffs at the residence.
When questioned by investigators, Bridges tried to tell them that the sex had been consensual and that “after meeting the blond woman in front of the Bonfair Market she invited him over to her house to have sex.” The suspect had been drinking at KC’s bar before entering the home. Bridges told officers that he was on parole and that he didn’t do anything, insisting that he did not rape the women inside the home. Fingerprints were located outside where the suspect had used his right hand to push open the main bedroom window. Evidence at the scene also showed that Bridges had broken the bedroom door in order to attack the second victim. Blood evidence from both victims was found on the bedroom floor and bathroom floor. Investigators believed evidence at the scene showed that the suspect had forcibly raped both elderly women after breaking into their home through the unlocked bedroom window.
With prior allegations of robbery and/or strike offenses, Bridges is now facing a 25 years to life mandatory sentence for the brutal attack. The next court date February 4, 2015 at 9:00 AM in Dept 34.
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