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CRIME DIGEST
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• OFFICER ARRESTS SEXUAL ASSAULT SUSPECT: CERES - Officer Jason Brock assisted the Sheriff's Department in apprehending a suspect in an attempted rape case near the Mitchell Road bridge on Tuesday, July 20.

The incident was reported at 4:16 p.m. north of the Tuolumne River underneath the bridge.

Several agencies, including the Sheriff's Department, sighted the suspect and registered sex offender Mark Richardson, 50, running underneath the bridge. A Modesto officer on a dirt bike was also in pursuit. Brock positioned his vehicle north of the bridge and saw the suspect running and ordered for him to stop at gunpoint.

According to Sheriff's Department Lt. Mike Radford, Richardson was with a female in the remote brushy river setting when he allegedly attempted to sexually assault her. A group of people walking in the area heard the attack and called 911.

Richardson has been charged with attempted murder and assault with the intent to commit sexual assault, said Radford,

• WOMAN CAUGHT IN THEFT: CERES - An alert boat owner called police early Sunday morning after he watched a man and woman trying to remove the outboard motor from his boat parked in his driveway. The pair drove off but one of the suspects, a woman, was arrested.

Holly Jean Patrick, 31, of Modesto, was arrested and charged with possession of stolen property, possession of methamphetamine pipes and possession of marijuana.

Police were called at 3:34 a.m. by a resident of the 2500 block of River Road who said a man and woman were attempting to remove his boat motor. The pair left the motor hanging onto its mounting and took a gas can before driving off in a black and gray 1988 Ford Escort. Officer Steve Carvalho located the vehicle on Rolling Rock Court. Only Patrick was inside the vehicle, which also contained the stolen gas.

The man was not located and described as a white male between the ages of 35 and 40.

• NAKED MAN CAUGHT IN COMPLEX: CERES - A 22-year-old Ceres man was arrested early Sunday morning after he was seen running naked and knocking on doors in an apartment complex at 2004 Evans Road.

Police received a call about the man at 1:28 a.m. on July 25. Officers Joe Wren and Freddie Ortiz found a very naked Homero Zapien who was apparently so intoxicated that he was unaware that he was without clothes an didn't know where he placed them. Zapien was being chased by an apartment resident when he tripped and fell and was detained by officers.

While officers at the complex a female resident came home and reported finding men's clothes in her bedroom. She said she didn't know Zapien and believed that he entered through her front door.

Zapien was charged with indecent exposure, public intoxication and resisting arrest.

• CHEVRON MINI-MART ROBBED: CERES - For the second time in two months, the daytime clerk at the Chevron station at Whitmore and Central avenues was robbed on Thursday.

This robbery occurred at 4:26 p.m. on July 22 when a suspect came up to the counter with a fountain drink and when the cash register was opened jumped over the counter and helped himself to money before fleeing.

The clerk said the man was caucasian, between the ages of 35 and 40 years of age, approximately 5-foot-8, 210 pounds, wearing a goatee, straw hat, sunglasses, green plaid shirt and tattoos on both arms.

The robbery is still under investigation, said Lt. Brent Smith.

The same store and clerk was robbed on May 18.

• MAN ARRESTED AFTER PURSUIT: CERES - Ceres officers were led on a pursuit on Wednesday, July 21 by a man who was allegedly stalking his former girlfriend.

The incident occurred at 12:30 a.m.

Officers Bryan Ferreira and Freddie Ortiz were investigating the claims of a woman in the 2800 block of Whitmore Avenue that her ex-boyfriend was bothering her and violating the terms of a restraining order. The officers noted that the subject arrived in a blue 1994 Toyota pickup but when saw the officers he accelerated away at a high rate of speed.

Both officers chased after the suspect after several minutes before he drove into the yard at 2829 Whitmore Avenue, ignoring commands to get out of vehicle. The man backed up onto Whitmore Avenue and into the parking lot at the corner of Whitmore and Louise avenues. The vehicle got hung up onto the guy wire to a utility pole and was blocked in by Ferreira's patrol car. The man was physically removed from the car.

He was arrested for vehicle pursuit, resisting arrest and an assault with a deadly weapon from a prior Ceres case.

It turned out that there was no restraining order on file.

ASSCO: CERES - A Was5713.