A Kissimmee man has been arrested in connection with the rape of a resident of the apartment complex he worked maintenance at.
Freddy Rodrigo LaFuente, 42, was arrested this week and charged with sexual battery and lewd lascivious molestation of an elderly resident.
Court records show LaFuente is being held on $55,000 bond, as well as a violation of probation charge from a 2018 aggrevated battery case.
According to a Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit, Last Wednesday, March 2, deputies responded to HCA Florida Osceola Hospital (ORMC) in reference to a sexual battery report. The victim reported earlier that morning that LaFuente, a maintenance worker at the Simpson Ridge Apartments in Kissimmee, was at her apartment to repair an item in her laundry room. The report stated they've known each other for about a year and had developed a rapport, to the point that "he expressed to her that he liked her and would refer to her as his 'Mamasita.'"
He left to get a part for the repair, returned and reportedly forced himself upon her, first on the living room, then in the bedroom where he carried the victim.
During the attack, while the victim told him to stop, LaFuente "continued to tell her he loved her ... she tried pushing him away and off of her but she couldn't."
When the attack stopped he reportedly told the victim he'd return in two hours. Overcome with embarrassment and terror, she locked herself in a bathroom covered in a towel. Her next memory was waking up in the emergency room.
The victim's granddaughter, who had moved in with her in February, returned from work that afternoon and was not able to get into the apartment because a deadbolt lock — installed by LaFeunte, the report said — was engaged. The granddaughter went to the complex office for help and two maintenance workers, one being LaFuente, went to the apartment to assist. LaFuente reportedly pulled out a screen, opened a window to gain entry and unbolt the lock. The granddaughter found the victim in the bathroom not fully alert and having very shallow breathing, and she was transported to the hospital. While there, she spoke to an investigator and positively identified LaFuente from a photo that he posted of himself on his Facebook page. Deputies found him at the apartment complex and took him into custody.
This case comes in the wake of the Florida Legislature unanimously passing "Miya's Law," which intends to beef up apartment safety by requiring background checks for building employees, and establishing a number of safeguards for renters. It is named after Miya Marcano, the Orlando woman who police say was kidnapped and killed by a maintenance man at her apartment complex in October 2021.
