09/12/2006



Young man arrested for attempted rape of 11-year-old girl
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DAVIE, Fla. (WSVN) -- An 18-year-old man accused of trying to rape an 11-year-old girl now sits at the Broward county jail, and the young girl has her friend to thank for holding her attacker at bay until police arrived.

Officers arrested Rocael Espinoza Andres after he admitted that he had planned to rape the girl. Police have charged Andres with one count of sexual battery on a victim under 12 and two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation. He's also being held on an immigration violation.

Justin Jesus, the victim's friend, said he did not mind risking his own safety to make sure his friend's attacker would be off the street. "I know her, she's my friend," he said. "We're not just people who say, 'Hi.' I'm her friend, and I care about her, and, I'm not going to let her get raped and not go after the people who did it."

Jesus recalled that his friend was "hysterical" after the attack. "Her eyes were red and swollen," he said. "She just couldn't stop crying. She couldn't even talk."

It was Sunday when the 11-year-old girl was walking home from a Davie McDonald's with a friend, but?then she separated from her friends. She slipped through a gap in a fence near 131st Avenue and State Road 84 to head home. That's when she said three men confronted her. She said one of those men grabbed her and pulled her into the bushes, pulling down his pants and offering her $100 to have sex.

"He pulled me in and pulled his pants down and then i was like, 'No, no,'" said the victim. "He offered me $100 and I was like, 'No, I don't want money, I don't want that. I don't want you, I don't want anything to do with you, get away from me.'"

The girl was able to slap him and get away but not before the man fondled her under her shorts. "He kept on touching, feeling my pants and I was like, 'Stop,'" she said.?"Then I pulled his hand out and he tried to lick my chest and I was like, 'No!' and I slapped his face. Then like 5 minutes later my pants finally got uncaught and I ran."

The girl told a group of her friends what had happened. The friends -- among them Jesus -- took off after the men.

"I had a gulf club stick without the top part of it," Jesus said, "and I put it in their face, and I told them, 'Don't move. Stop right now,' so she could come and tell us who did it."

While Jesus and the other friends kept Andres from fleeing, police arrived and arrested him.?Andres later admitted to police he grabbed the girl's breasts and touched her under her shorts, as well as admitting his plans to rape her.

Friends of the 11-year-old victim say they are going to be more cautious and stick together when walking home from school.? "Probably walk with more people than I usually do.? And I'm going to?walk with her all the time now to make sure nothing else happens."

http://www2.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI29024/