Rafael Ezequiel Cortez, a 27-year-old Los Angeles man, will spend ten days in jail and have to do 120 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty on Monday to groping a victim at an Irvine storage facility.
Cortez accepted a charge of a misdemeanor count of touching an intimate part of another person. Misdemeanor counts of battery and false imprisonment were dismissed after Cortez accepted a plea deal.
The assault occurred on June 25, 2022, at the Extra Space Storage facility located at 17 Shield, in Irvine, according to the Irvine Police Department.
The victim was waiting for the elevator at the storage facility when the doors opened and two men walked out. One of the two men however got back into the elevator after she got in. Surveillance video caught the man as he returned to the elevator.
Cortez then lunged at the victim, pulled down her sports bra and he “latched on to my breast,” as the victim related to ABC News.
The victim then pushed him away and told him to stop. The victim said Cortez also hit her and she hit him back. The victim ended up with a swollen face and a black and blue eye.
The victim finally managed to escape from the elevator and get away from Cortez on the first floor of the facility, according to the Irvine Police. Cortez then ran off and got into a moving truck.
Cortez was apparently employed by a moving company that was present at the facility on the day of the assault.
