Last week, Prattville, Alabama police arrested a Honduran national who had been in the US illegally since 2021 for the rape of a teenager, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
Geovani Grevi Rivera-Zavala, 29, faces a Class A felony rape charge for the alleged sexual assault on a teenage girl at a restaurant in Prattville, Alabama last weekend.
According to the police, the victim was dining out with relatives when she noticed that Rivera-Zavala was staring at her from across the room. When the girl later went to use the restroom, Rivera-Zavala followed her in, locked the door, and forced her into a stall where he raped her.
At Rivera-Zavala’s bail hearing last Monday, Prattville Police investigator Kaitlyn Sweat told the court that the victim repeatedly told him “No,” and attempted to fight off her assailant. The victim told police that when she returned to the table, she informed her family about what happened. The police were then called to the scene where Rivera-Zavala was identified as he was trying to leave the restaurant.
Sweat told the court that Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed her that Rivera-Zavala illegally entered the United States at Eagle Pass in Texas in November 2021. She said ICE placed an immigration detainer on him.
According to WSFA-TV, when he entered the US in 2021, Rivera-Zavala, who was using a different name, was fingerprinted and then released.
District Attorney CJ Robinson told Autauga District Judge Jessica Sanders that the county wasn’t interested in negotiating a lesser charge with federal authorities so Rivera-Savala can be deported. Robinson said ICE can take custody of Rivera-Savala when the Department of Corrections “is done with him.”
Judge Sanders ruled that Rivera-Savala be held without bail.
If found guilty, he could face between ten and 99 years in prison.
