A captain at San Quentin State Prison in California was arrested last week in connection with an investigation into the sexual assault of an unconscious person, authorities said.
Orlando Ponce, 43, was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of forcible penetration on an unconscious person, the Marin County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Detectives were able to find probable cause for the arrest after the victim came forward on Jan. 30, the sheriff's office said.
The assault was alleged to have occurred in San Quentin Village, which is adjacent to the prison, a sheriff’s spokesperson, Sgt. Brenton Schneider, said in an email Tuesday.
Court records for Ponce in the Marin County Superior Court public index were not immediately available online. He was booked into jail on a $100,000 bond but is no longer in custody, according to inmate records.
A phone number listed for Ponce was disconnected, and an attempt to reach him by email Monday failed. It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney.
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Ponce has been with its office since 2001, when he was a cadet at the Richard A. McGee Correctional Training Center. He was promoted to captain on July 1, 2021, after a six-month term in a limited captain assignment earlier that year.
His status with the prison was unclear Tuesday.