A judge ruled Wednesday that a former Riverside County Sheriff's deputy must stand trial on charges of kidnapping and raping a woman in La Quinta. Marc Javier Diaz, 35, was arrested in February.
The Indio man is charged with kidnapping to commit rape and two counts of rape under the threat of authority of a public official. He could face life without the possibility of parole if convicted on the kidnap- to-rape charge.
Diaz, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, was arrested in February during a traffic stop near Avenue 50 and Jackson Street in La Quinta, said sheriff's Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela.
He is accused of walking into Point Happy Massage Therapy at 78370 Highway 111 in La Quinta on Jan. 31, displaying a law enforcement badge and demanding identification from employees and others in the establishment.
He then allegedly ordered a friend of an employee who had no identification into his pickup truck, drove her to a secluded location near Washington Street and Country Club Drive and raped her.
Diaz worked for the Coachella Valley Unified School District for 16 months before his arrest. Officials at the Coachella Valley superintendent's office have refused to comment on his employment history on grounds that it is a "personnel matter."
Diaz was a Riverside County sheriff's deputy for nine years before he resigned in 2004.
He was arrested on June 25, 2004, on suspicion of soliciting and engaging in prostitution in the area of Bliss and Oasis streets in Indio, according to Indio police. At the time, he was working in the Indio courthouse, but the next month he resigned, Valenzuela said.
The District Attorney's Office never filed charges against Diaz for the prostitution allegation because of insufficient evidence, a spokesman for the office has said.
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