2nd judge declines to detain man accused in 2 rapes

Suspect to be released to strict house arrest

A second Albuquerque judge has declined to detain a man accused in a pair of rape cases making their way through initial court hearings.

But Eli Kronenanker will remain in custody pending yet another detention hearing, this time in Sandoval County.

Kronenanker is accused in two rape cases, one from 2013 involving a teen girl and one from 2015 involving an adult woman.

Last week, he was charged in Sandoval County in a new case accusing him of retaliation against a witness. Prosecutors said he returned to the home of the teen in the 2013 case and punched her in the face when she told him she had no plans to drop the rape charges against him.

He is set for a pretrial detention hearing in this intimidation case Tuesday and must stay in jail until that hearing.

Meanwhile, two judges have decided Kronenanker can be released onto strict house arrest in the two rape cases.

Second Judicial District Judge Charles Brown in Albuquerque on Thursday echoed a decision made last week by Judge Stan Whitaker, opting to release Kronenanker, but placing him on house arrest.

And Brown said it seemed like prosecutors were trying to “manipulate the system” by filing new charges in another county based on information law enforcement had been aware of for years.

In his order, Brown says he “acknowledges the seriousness of the charges against” Kronenanker, but says the allegations in the cases “have been known to the State since 2013.”

In the 2013 case, Kronenanker, then 30, is accused tricking a 17-year-old into an online and phone relationship, then transporting her to his home where he raped her.

She filed charges, triggering Kronenanker to visit her months later, punching her and threatening her to drop the charges, prosecutors and court documents say.

It’s charges from this accusation that Kronenanker now faces in Sandoval County.

Prosecutors with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office decided at the time that the 2013 rape case was not strong enough to move forward. The case was dismissed and evidence destroyed.

Earlier this year, the woman in the center of that case succeeded in getting the Attorney General’s Office to revive the case. The office says there is enough evidence left to proceed with prosecution.

At the same time, Kronenanker faces rape charges filed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office in a 2015 case. In that case, a woman told police that she was raped after she went to the home of a man who convinced her that they had been friends in elementary school. That home was the place where the Rio Rancho teen said she had been raped, according to prosecutors.

Kronenanker came before Judge Whitaker on this case Sept. 1 and was ordered onto strict house arrest once he is released from custody.