Police arrest 18-year-old in statutory rape case
Police say suspect had sexually explicit material of girl on his cellphone
LOWELL >> An 18-year-old man was charged with multiple sex crimes, including statutory rape, after he allegedly confessed to engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a girl who he told investigators was “either 13 or 14,” according to police reports.
Aurelio Roldan was arrested after Lowell Police said the alleged victim’s concerned mother approached them for help in putting an end to the alleged illicit relationship between the pair.
Police reports available in Lowell District Court documents state during the course of the investigation, police allegedly uncovered sexually explicit photos and videos of the girl on Roldan’s cellphone.
In addition to statutory rape, Roldan was arraigned in Lowell District Court on March 7 on charges of possession of child pornography, distribution of obscene matter, and two counts of posing/exhibiting a child in a sex act. Judge Stephen Geary ordered Roldan to be held on $5,000 cash bail.
According to police reports, the mother told police on the night of March 6 that her daughter had been in a sexual relationship with Roldan. Despite the mother’s demands for the relationship to end, police said she was fearful her daughter was again with the 18-year-old that night.
According to police reports, patrol units searched the area around Roldan’s apartment in Centralville, eventually locating the 18-year-old with the girl on Coburn Street during the early morning hours of March 7.
With the pair separated, police reports state the girl told police she had previously dated Roland for approximately six months and that the relationship was sexual. Though her mother forbade the relationship from continuing, the pair still communicated regularly by cellphone.
According to police, on March 6, the girl claimed she ran into Roldan while walking to the store and agreed to go back to his apartment. Police reports state the girl “was nervous and scared because she knew it was wrong to go to Mr. Roldan’s apartment … and that it was going to cause a lot of trouble.”
Police reports state while at the apartment, the girl claimed she “finally agreed” to have sex with Roldan “because he asked so many times, although she affirmed that she was scared and knew it was not right.”
After talking with investigators, police said the girl was taken
to an area hospital to undergo “a sexual assault evidence collection process.”
Police reports state Roldan told police through a Spanish translator that he believed the alleged victim to be “either 13 or 14,” and that the pair had began dating last August.
Police said he affirmed previous statements made by the alleged victim and her mother that the relationship was sexual, and that the alleged victim’s mother demanded they stop seeing each other.
Despite the parent’s
wishes, police reports state Roldan disclosed he frequently communicated with the girl. Police said Roland also confessed to seeing the girl at his apartment on March 6, where he allegedly admitted the pair had sex multiple times.
Police reports state during questioning, Roldan “affirmed repeatedly that he was fully aware of his own age, believed (the alleged victim) to be ‘thirteen or fourteen,’ but wasn’t sure of her age” and that “he knew engaging in a sexual relationship with her was wrong, based on their ages.”
According to police reports, Roldan granted police the right to search his cellphone and his bedroom
on West L Street.
The cellphone allegedly held a recent conversation between him and the girl arranging a time to meet up, which included messages from Roldan that police said were “sexually suggestive.” According to police, Roldan also sent the girl “sexually explicit media,” including photographs and videos, including an explicit image of himself.
Police reports state they also discovered explicit images of the minor on Roldan’s cellphone, including a video from March 6 that showed Roland and the girl nude, and involved in activity “pornographic in nature.”
Following Roldan’s arrest,
court documents show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contacted the Lowell Police about Roldan — a suspected citizen of Ecuador — requesting police provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with advance notification of his
release from custody.
The document, sent to the Lowell Police within hours of Roldan’s arrest, states DHS suspects Roldan is “a removable alien,” and that they seek “an opportunity to determine if there is probable cause to conclude that Roldan is a removable
alien.”
The Lowell Police Department were not immediately available for comment.
Roldan is slated to return to court for a pretrial conference on April 3. His attorney, Alexandra Brunelle, was not immediately available for comment.