Connecticut: Police say Robert Rivera, 30, returned woman's lost dog and then attacked and raped her

CONNECTICUT -- A man who returned a teenage girl’s lost dog is charged with raping her.

Robert Rivera, 30 of Pearl Harbor Street, was charged Monday with first-degree sexual assault and first-degree unlawful restraint after police said DNA connected him to the crime.

He was released after posting $250,000 bond.

On July 28, police said they were dispatched to a Pearl Harbor home for a sex assault.

The 18-year-old victim told police she had been home alone and her dog had managed to get out of the house and ran away, police said.

A short time later Rivera, a neighbor, knocked on the girl’s door holding her lost pup, police said. The girl grabbed the dog and put him in her bedroom and when she returned police said Rivera was still standing in the doorway.

They said Rivera grabbed the girl, threw her down on a couch in the living room, ripped her clothes off and raped her as she screamed for help. Rivera then fled the home, police said.

The girl was taken to Bridgeport Hospital.

Police said they later confronted Rivera and while he admitted returning the girl’s lost dog they said he denied raping her.

But police said they took a DNA sample from Rivera and it was later found to match DNA evidence taken from the girl.

(Connecticut Post - November 28, 2016)