WEST HARTFORD -- A maintenance worker was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in her West Hartford apartment.
Police said that on Thursday at around 11:20 p.m. they went to an apartment complex on Caya Avenue for a reported sexual assault that had occurred 20 minutes prior.
Police said the suspect was a maintenance worker in the building and they found him working in the front hallway of the apartment complex. He was later identified as Santos Nunez, 43, of New Britain, and police confirmed he was the maintenance man in the building.
The victim told police that Nunez knocked on her door under the guise of delivering a flyer and walked in. He refused to leave when asked, according to police. When he was in her apartment, he tried to coerce her into performing a sexual act on him to which she refused. The suspect sexually assaulted her and told her not to notify anyone before leaving. A child was asleep in the same room where the incident occurred, according to police.
Lt. Eric Rocheleau of the West Hartford Police Department said she opened the door because she knew Nunez as a maintenance worker in the building.
He said, "In this case, it was one of those things where she knew who he was, she opened the door and he took advantage of that situation."
"She had seen him before and she had actually had one previous encounter where he had exposed himself to her in a hallway," said Lt. Rocheleau, who added the victim did not report that incident prior to Nunez's arrest Thursday.
Nunez was charged with one count first-degree sexual assault, home invasion and one count of risk of injury to a minor.
He was held on a $500,000 bail and will be arraigned Friday in Hartford Superior Court.
Due to the nature of this sexual assault complaint, the name and other personal identifying information, including the address of the victim, isn't reported.