OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — An Osceola County apartment maintenance worker was arrested after he allegedly raped an elderly woman.
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On March 2, Osceola County deputies said the worker, later identified as Freddy LaFuente, was at a woman’s apartment to repair an item in her laundry room.
Deputies said LaFuente knew the woman for about a year and that they were acquaintances.
In the past, LaFuente told the woman he liked her and he called her his “Mamasita,” according to an affidavit.
When LaFuente was repairing the issue in the laundry room, he told the woman that he needed to grab a part and that he would be right back.
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When LaFuente came back deputies said he closed the door, approached the woman, laid on top of her and attempted to kiss her.
The woman demanded LaFuente to stop. A report said that LaFuente then told her that he loved her and continued to wrap his arms around her.
LaFuente then took the woman to her bedroom and allegedly raped her.
According to an affidavit, the woman repeatedly told LaFuente to stop and that she was “a seventy-year-old woman and he was in his forties that he needed to stop.”
She tried pushing him away but she couldn’t, the report said. The man eventually left the apartment.
Deputies said the woman was overcome with embarrassment and was terrified that LaFuente would return so she locked the door. She went to the bathroom to cover herself with a towel and passed out on the floor.
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Osceola County deputies said the woman lives with her granddaughter. When her granddaughter came home from work she knocked on her grandma’s door. Her grandma didn’t answer, so she went to find someone to help open the door, according to a report.
The report said two maintenance workers, including LaFuente, and the front office manager went to the apartment to help open the door.
When they unlocked the door, the report said they were unable to enter because a dead bolt lock was installed by LaFuente prior to the incident.
LaFuente went to the the side of the apartment, pulled the screen out from the bedroom window, slid the window open and entered the apartment, the report said.
He unlocked the front door and let the woman’s granddaughter in.
The girl found her grandmother lying on the bathroom floor. Then she called emergency services.
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The elderly woman was later was able to identify LaFuente from a photo that he posted of himself on his Facebook page, the report said.
Deputies said they found LaFuente at the Simpson Ridge Apartments and took him into custody.
LaFuente was charged with sexual battery, and lewd and lascivious offenses committed upon an elderly person.
He remains in the Osceola County Jail.
“This is a sick man,” Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez said. “I commend our victim for coming forward. This behavior is wrong. She’s brave. She spoke out against him and now he’s been arrested and booked into the Osceola County Jail, where he should be for his crime.”
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