Records: Pima County deputy assaulted colleague at party
Court documents revealed new details surrounding the arrest of a Pima County sheriff ’s deputy who is accused of sexually assaulting a colleague at a house party last year.
The documents say former Deputy Ricardo Garcia hosted a party at his home on Dec. 17, 2022, and into the early morning of Dec. 18, when a female colleague drank enough alcohol that Garcia and another guest had to help her to a bed in a guest bedroom.
The guest later noticed that Garcia had returned to the guest bedroom and had locked the door. Documents say the guest jimmied the door open using a plastic utensil and found Garcia lying next to the woman, who only had her bra and underwear. The guest told Garcia that the woman was too intoxicated and to leave her alone, which he did, documents say.
The guest noticed the bedroom door was once again locked and jimmied it open again when he found Garcia naked from the waist down and sitting on the floor with the woman’s head lying on his lap, documents say. The guest once again told Garcia to leave the woman alone as she was too intoxicated and waited until Garcia returned to his own bedroom, documents say.
Documents say the colleague checked the guest bedroom a third time and noticed it was once again locked. The colleague jimmied the door once again and noticed the woman was completely naked while Garcia was fully clothed and appeared as though he was about to leave the room, documents say.
The guest told Garcia that he would help the woman home when Garcia told the guest to get out of his house, documents say. The guest called for a deputy, who later interviewed the woman as she gave incoherent and slurred responses. Documents say the woman eventually told investigators that she didn’t recall anything other than going to the bedroom to sleep.
Detectives interviewed the woman on a different day when she maintained she didn’t recall anything happening to her but felt soreness in her genitals. Documents say the woman also shared that Garcia had texted her asking why law enforcement wished to talk to him. He later called the woman and told her that they had sex and told her not to tell authorities that she didn’t remember having sex, documents say.
The woman then requested a sexual assault exam and authorities obtained a search warrant to collect DNA from Garcia. Documents noted that not enough DNA evidence existed to confirm it belonged to Garcia.
Authorities arrested Garcia on Jan. 18 — one day after the DNA results were available — on one count of sexual assault. Garcia was officially fired from the department on Tuesday.
It was not immediately known if Garcia remained in jail.
The Arizona Republic is including Garcia’s photo as he was a person in a position of authority.