July 20, 2012

DNA evidence has linked a Houston police officer to a rape he allegedly committed while on duty last month, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Officer Adan Jimenez Carranza, 32, was being held Friday at the Harris County Jail under a $30,000 bond, charged with aggravated sexual assault of a woman June 18 after a minor traffic accident, court records show.

After the fender-bender in the 1000 block of Dairy Ashford, investigators said, Carranza moved the people involved in the accident to a business parking lot across the road.

The 39-year-old victim told police that Carranza eventually handcuffed her and placed her in the back of his marked patrol car, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Carranza "held her in his police unit until all of the other witnesses, including the parties to the original accident and the wrecker driver that responded, had left the scene then approached the vehicle where she was still handcuffed in the back seat," the complaint states.

Alone with the handcuffed woman, the uniformed officer - still wearing his gun belt with his pistol in full view - allegedly raped her in the back seat of the patrol car, prosecutors said.

The victim "was in fear of her life and safety given Ofc. A. Carranza's status as a peace officer and the firearm he was wearing at the time," according to the complaint.

After the alleged assault, Carranza drove the woman to the jail and booked her in for reckless driving, according to prosecutors.

The officer's DNA was collected from the victim and from the back of the patrol car he used the night of the accident, prosecutors said. A forensic analysis of the semen linked Carranza to the sexual assault, investigators said.

Carranza joined HPD in September 2009 and is assigned to the Westside Patrol Division, said HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva.

robert.stanton@chron.com

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