Man charged with sex crime: BCPO

A 35-year-old married Barnegat man has been arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault following a joint investigation conducted by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and the Lyndhurst Police Department, acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gubir S. Grewal announced last week.

Pedro A. Castillo-Valdes was taken into custody Wednesday, April 27, based on the joint investigation, the BCPO said.

The prosecutor gave the following account of what led to Castillo-Valdes’ arrest:

On Friday, April 22, a woman reportedly told the Lyndhurst PD that in the early hours of April 22, she was sexually assaulted in her home, while she was asleep, by a man who was her acquaintance. The LPD and the BCPO then performed an investigation jointly, and it was determined that it was Castillo-Valdes who allegedly sexually assaulted the victim — and who woke her up while it all happened.

Judge Christopher R. Kazlau, of the Bergen County Superior Court, set Castillo-Valdes’ bail at $100,000, with no 10% option.

Unable to post the bail, Kazlau remanded Castillo-Valdes to the Bergen County Jail, and ordered that if he eventually posts the bail, he is to have no contact with the victim or her family — and he most also surrender his passport.

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