Woman Raped in Gilroy Motel Room

A party gone wrong yielded two arrests last Friday.

On March 8, a group of party-goers were at a motel on the 6100 block of Monterey Street in Gilroy. According to Sgt. Pedro Espinoza, three of them, two men and a woman, were left alone in the motel room.

At 5:30 a.m., the woman, a Gilroy resident, went to use the bathroom. She was followed by one of the men, Alvaro Pineda Caldera, who proceeded to rape her, she told police.

Caldera, 29, of San Juan Bautista, was arrested on a rape charge by Gilroy police, Espinoza said.

The other man in the room was also arrested on claims that he watched and encouraged the rape. But Espinoza said he was later released without any charges filed against him.

"They knew each other beforehand," Espinoza said. "Caldera is claiming it was consensual."