SHARE

Authorities: Englewood Rape Victim Thought Family Friend Was Her Husband

A landscaper raped a sleeping Englewood woman after borrowing her husband’s car and using his keys to get into their home, authorities said.

Ulises Ramirez Argueta

Ulises Ramirez Argueta

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT

The victim told police she at first thought it was her husband who’d climbed into bed with her.

She turned around after a few minutes and was horrified to find that she'd been penetrated by Ulises Ramirez Argueta, a 31-year-old El Salvador national known to the couple, they said.

The husband told investigators he'd just gotten to work on Monday, April 11, when Argueta asked if he could borrow his car "to go buy some empanadas,” a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says.

Instead, Argueta drove to the couple’s Englewood home, where they live with their three young children, investigators said.

On the ring were the husband’s house keys, which Argueta “used to open the front door,” the affidavit of probable cause filed with the court says.

The victim told detectives she was sleeping without clothes on when she felt penetrated.

“She was under the impression that it was her husband,” the affidavit says.

After discovering it wasn’t, she ran for the phone to dial 911, but Argueta stopped her, the victim told police. He ran after a brief struggle, dropping his wallet in the process, investigators said.

Responding Englewood officers said they found Argueta at the couple's front door, telling them in Spanish that he “knows he was wrong and made a mistake and that he did not know what was wrong with him,” according to the affidavit.

“He was begging for them to accept his apology and not report the incident to the police,” it adds.

Argueta, who is married and also lives in Englewood, then asked Officer Adolfo Gutierrez “if he could step out and give him a few minutes to speak with them.”

The officer told Agueta in no uncertain terms that he was “not going anywhere.”

Argueta continued apologizing, but the couple didn’t want to hear it, investigators said. He was then taken into custody.

Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said detectives from his Sex Crimes Unit, assisted by Englewood police, found that Argueta “entered the victim’s home, sexually assaulted her, and endangered the welfare of three children who were present at the residence.”

He was charged with aggravated assault, burglary and three counts of child endangerment and has remained held in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.

to follow Daily Voice Englewood and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE