LIVERMORE — A local resident has been arrested and charged with holding his girlfriend against her will and assaulting her with a knife, after the victim’s mother reported to police that her daughter had been kidnapped, court records show.
The 22-year-old Livermore resident was charged with false imprisonment, assault, domestic violence, vandalism, and resisting arrest. All the charges are felonies except for the resisting count. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin with bail set at $110,000, records show.
It all started on Aug. 21, when the victim’s mother reported that her daughter had been the victim of a kidnapping. The mother told police that her daughter was nowhere to be found, but later spoke to her on the phone, police said. During the call, the young woman reportedly sounded “drugged” and claimed to be in Antioch, but had no idea how she’d ended up there.
Police were able to track down the suspect using cellphone pings and other evidence. They say he forced her to stay with him by destroying her phone, keeping her identification card, “displacing” her car keys, and by assaulting her when she resisted. Police said in court records the woman was choked twice, thrown to the ground, threatened with a knife to her neck and stomach and “suffered an unimaginable threat of violence” during the ordeal.
The preliminary hearing — where prosecutors will present evidence to a judge and ask for the charges to be upheld — was initially set for Friday, but has been postponed. The man’s next court date is on Sept. 18, records show.
Source: www.mercurynews.com