Central Coast woman speaks out about alleged sexual assault over weekend
A 26-year-old Capitola resident is sharing her story with KION about what happened to her over the weekend at a Santa Cruz bar.
Sara Arellano tells us she was drugged and sexually assaulted Saturday night, and it all started at The Red Room Bar on Cedar Street in Santa Cruz sometime after 10:30 at night.
Police are now investigating these allegations.
“Me and my friend wanted to go out to just kind of have like a calm night,” said Arellano.
She had one drink with her friend, but ordered a water after that, and that’s the last thing she remembers. She woke up at her friend’s house, dazed and confused.
“I went into the restroom and I noticed I had bruises, and it just didn’t add up to me,” said Arellano.
The Red Room’s general manager told us on Tuesday he was not aware of these events until after we tried speaking with him. He says staff try to prevent any sort of drugging of the drinks.
Arellano says she knew she could not have gotten too drunk that night; she did not feel hungover.
She went to Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz to get her blood drawn and tested. But they did not have a rape test kit, so they sent to her sent a hospital in Santa Clara.
That is where she found out she tested positive for a drug commonly used in date rapes.
“I didn’t believe it. To be honest with you, I didn’t believe it,” said Arellano. “I just started thinking about the intent behind it like, what someone’s
intention has to be to do that to somebody.”
Arellano tells us she does not remember the assault, if she was raped or what exactly happened. Nurses tell her it is a matter of finding DNA. But she says she has bruises on here arms, stomach and soreness on her hip.
One of the hardest parts of Arellano, however, was having to drive to Santa Clara to get a sexual assault and rape test done.
“They have to photograph your entire body, like naked. And they have to measure your injuries and photograph them. They have to photograph between your legs and stuff, and nobody talks about that,” said Arellano.
She says as amazing as the nurses were, the whole process felt invasive and dehumanizing. It is an experience she hopes no one will ever go through.
“I have been sexually assaulted in the past and it doesn’t feel like this time because I can’t even remember, which is kind of like you don’t even know who you’re looking out for,” said Arellano.
Police are now investigating Arellano’s report.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office does have a SART program, but a sergeant there tells KION they contract any medical evaluations out to a hospital in Santa Clara because it has more resources there for these types of cases.
