Man who abducted female student was charged for same crime in his 20s

Philippe Buteau|Interim News Director

 

The man charged with kidnapping and aggravated battery of a FIU student in early May had been arrested and charged 20 years ago for the same crime.

Carlos Jose Arana was arrested in 1995 when he was 22 for kidnapping a minor and sexually assaulting her, but no action was taken, according to county court records from March of that year.

Twenty years later in May 2015, now 42, Arana was arrested again for abducting a female University while she waited for a county bus near the Modesto Maidique Campus on SW 107 Avenue and SW 17 Street.

On the morning of May 15, Arana approached the student at the bus stop while in his car. He asked where she worked and offered to take her there. After she denied him, Arana threatened her saying that he had a weapon.

“Get in, I have a knife,” he reportedly said to her.

The student, whose name was withheld from the Miami-Dade Police arrest report, told officers that Arana groped her, touching her breast with his right hand each time he stopped his white 1999 Jeep Cherokee, according to the report.

When they arrived at Dolphin Mall, about three miles away from where Arana abducted her, the student attempted to free herself from him, according to the report.

However, he grabbed her to prevent her from escaping. He placed his left hand on her neck and reached into her shirt. He “continuously” touched her breast, according to the report.

She was eventually able to exit Arana’s vehicle and call the police.

Although the abduction took place off-campus, the incident comes within an academic year that has seen several incidents in which female students were victimized – a flasher, serial groper, and an alleged sexual assault.

In an interview with Student Media on May 18, University President Mark Rosenberg assured all students, but particularly female students, that their safety is one of his top concerns.

“The It’s On Us campaign is important as it relates to the seriousness that we take the sexual assault issue,” Rosenberg said. “We have spent a lot of time to educate students on what this is about and why it has to be aggressively combated.”

He also said the University is teaching students what they should do to protect themselves.

“We are doing a better job of education for students about not getting in strangers automobiles.”

And Rosenberg cited improvements the University had made in the area of security, such as additional campus lighting, student safety signs, and additional police officers.

When he began as University president in 2009 there were 45 officers and now there are 67, six of whom are female.

The new officers has allowed the University to have “more visible and aggressive patrolling,” Rosenberg said, and “high-level training” for officers.

Along with protocols that automatically occur if there’s been an assault, which are consistent with federal and state requirements, the University. The University tested, modified, then changed its notification system when they realized that not all students were receiving alerts, Rosenberg said.

“We can’t do enough to maintain and enhance campus safety,” Rosenberg said.