Bar owner from Austin accused of raping customer

Affidavit: Reported assault occurred in a Fort Worth hotel.

The Texas Department of Agriculture said an illegal credit card data skimmer was spotted at a gas station in Northwest Austin on Thursday.

The skimmer, which can steal a victim’s financial data from credit cards, was discovered at the Sunrise Mini Mart/Texaco food mart at 8925 Anderson Mill Road, the department said in a statement.

The department urges the public to follow these tips to avoid becoming a victim of a gas pump skimmer: ■ Use the pump closest to storefront. ■ Make sure the security tape on the gas pump cabinet has not been torn.

■ The safest way to pay is inside the store with cash.

An Austin business owner is accused of sexually assaulting a patron last December at a bar he owns in Fort Worth, according to an arrest affidafiled in Tarrant County. Israel Espiricueta, 41, the owner of the Library Bar in downtown Fort Worth and another bar in Austin, was arrested while in Travis County on Feb. 5 and charged with sexual assault. He was released from jail after posting a $10,000 bond, the Travis County sheriff ’s office said.

Espiricueta is the owner of the Rhino Room bar in East Austin, according to Texas Secretary of State business filings.

In court doc u ments, authorities allege that Espir- icueta sexually assaulted a female Library Bar customer the morning of Dec. 23 at a nearby hotel after she had passed out.

According to the affidavit, the woman told police she had been drinking after closing hours with friends, who are employees at the Library, when Espiricueta proposed to take her to a hotel.

She said she only remembered being in the front seat of a pickup being driven by Espiricueta and waking up on a bed with him making her perform oral sex, the affidavit said.

She blacked out again, the document said, and woke up later with blood on the sheets.

An examination at a Fort Worth hospital indicated multiple injuries to her genitalia, documents said.

Police obtained video surveillance from both the hotel and the Library bar, which showed the woman repeatedly slumped over with her face resting on top of her knees for several minutes at a time and Espiricueta lift- ing her to a standing position while she was unconscious and did not have the abil- ity to resist, the court documents said.

The video from the bar showed Espiricueta thrusting his hips while the woman was bent over, the affidavit said.

Espiricueta before his arrest declined to speak to investigators, the documents said.

Neither he nor his attorney, Jeff Kearney, returned calls for comment on Wednesday.

According to the FortWorth Star Telegram, a grand jury is expected to hear the case this week. However, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office could not confirm this to the American-Statesman.

Espiricueta previously had been charged with possession of a dangerous drug and bringing a weapon into a prohibited place — both in 2007 — but the charges were dismissed, according to public and court records.

The Library Bar deactivated its Facebook page Monday afternoon, the Dallas Morning News reported.