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Henrico man arrested for groping

BY MARK BOWES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 24, 2006


A suspect was arrested Thursday in a five-month series of grope-and-run incidents that plagued apartment complexes between West Broad Street and Staples Mill Road. A man would run up to women under the cover of darkness, grab their private parts and run away.

"It was strictly run, grab and then run," said Henrico County Investigator Ed Kopacki.

None of the women was injured, but the incidents caused fear and alarm among female apartment dwellers.

"I think they were afraid of being out at night because of what happened," Kopacki said.

Police identified the suspect as Hector G. Tubin-Tut, 18, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. They think he is also responsible for several peeping Tom incidents.

Tubin-Tut was living with four other undocumented immigrants in an apartment near where the assaults occurred, Kopacki said. Police have charged him with three counts of peeping into an occupied dwelling.

Kopacki said that next week he plans to file 12 additional counts of either misdemeanor sexual battery or simple assault.

Between Dec. 31 and June 2, police received 12 reports of women being accosted and grabbed along streets in four to five apartment complexes off Glenside Drive.

Several months ago, police set up a surveillance operation and began watching the complexes seven days a week after dark, Kopacki said.

This month, investigators spotted a man peeping into one of the apartments, Kopacki said. From there, they developed a suspect in the groping incidents. Arrest warrants were obtained Thursday.

Police called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and they assisted county officers in arresting the four undocumented immigrants living with Tubin-Tut in the 7600 block of Beth Road.

Police charged two of them with possessing false identification and held them for federal authorities. They were identified as Martin Cutzal-Cali, 24, and Ervin Cutzal-Cali, 22.

ICE agents took the other two into custody. Kopacki said the group had been working construction jobs.


Contact staff writer Mark Bowes at mbowes@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-64540.