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Illegal immigrant charged in rape of mentally disabled girl, 6
Friday, May 5, 2006

By TOM TRONCONE
STAFF WRITER


HACKENSACK -- An illegal alien from Ecuador has been charged with raping a 6-year-old girl with Down syndrome, authorities said Thursday.

Manuel Contreras-Sanango, a 19-year-old busboy, was charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor. He was being held on $250,000 bail Thursday at the Bergen County Jail.

Shortly before 3 a.m. on Monday, the girl's mother heard her crying in her bedroom, said Detective Capt. Frank Lomia. The woman passed an underwear-clad Contreras-Sanango, a distant relative staying in the woman's home, en route to the room, Lomia said.

When she entered the girl's room, she found the child lying on the floor and bleeding as a result of the sexual assault, Lomia said. The woman took the child to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

After visiting the girl in the hospital, police went to the house and arrested Contreras-Sanango, Lomia said.