San Francisco man “well-known” to police arrested in sexual assault of unconscious woman
By Carlos E. Castañeda
A man was charged on Wednesday in connection with the sexual assault of an unconscious woman in San Francisco last month, authorities said.
The incident happened on Sept. 26 in the area of Bayshore Boulevard and Industrial Street in the city’s Bayview District. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the 21-year-old victim told police officers that she had been sexually assaulted by a man who was in a tent on a nearby hill. The woman told officers she had woken up to a man sexually assaulting her, and that she had been unconscious and had not given consent, the DA’s Office said.
The woman left the tent, went down the hill, and found a witness who helped her call police. San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew said in a press conference on Wednesday that investigators identified the suspect as 36-year-old David Vonstetten, who he described as “a homeless individual who was well known to this department.”
Lew said plainclothes officers on Saturday found Vonstetten, who had changed his appearance since the sexual assault, walking along Bayshore Avenue, and he was arrested. The DA’s Office said he was being charged with sodomy of an unconscious person, sodomy by intoxication, sodomy by force, sexual battery by restraint, and felony false imprisonment.
Lew said the department would do everything it could to ensure the survivor gets justice.
“Survivors of sexual assault deserve their cases to be vigorously investigated, and they deserve to get justice,” said Lew. “We work closely with our DA’s Office to ensure justice is served and the perpetrators are held accountable.”
“I think all of us know that there is heightened attention around our country on the issue of sex assault,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “We want it to be clear that when these types of things happen in San Francisco, they are taken seriously. And this is a case that I am just so glad that the San Francisco Police were able to investigate and to solve expeditiously, and that my office was able to charge in a timely manner.
Vonstetten was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday. Jenkins said her office would move to have Vonstetten kept in custody for the duration of the court proceedings.
