A Bellingham man who was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Oregon and who has been charged with sexually assaulting another child in Washington was arrested last week.
Juan Carlos Jimenez-Mares, 34, was charged May 3, 2021, with one count of first-degree rape of a child, a felony, in Whatcom County Superior Court.
At the time the charges were filed in Whatcom County, Jimenez-Mares was serving a prison sentence in Salem, Oregon, for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Astoria, Oregon, according to court records. Jimenez-Mares' earliest release from prison was in December 2021, according to the court records.
In late November last year, an extraditable warrant in West Coast states was put out for Jimenez-Mares' arrest, the records show.
He was arrested Jan. 3, according to the Whatcom County Jail log.
Jimenez-Mares' bail was set at $200,000 at his warrant identification and first appearance hearing held Jan. 4 in Whatcom County Superior Court. A sexual assault protection order was also put in place between Jimenez-Mares and the victim.
If Jimenez-Mares bonds out of jail, he is not allowed to be around minor children as part of his pretrial release conditions, court records state.
Jimenez-Mares' arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 13, the records show.
On April 19, 2020, Bellingham police received a report from Child Protective Services concerning a woman and two of her children; a then-13-year-old boy and a then-14-month-old boy, according to court records.
The boy had disclosed to Child Protective Services that Jimenez-Mares, who was known to the child, had sexually assaulted him at least twice, the court records state.
In a September forensic interview done with the boy, he told police that when he was 8 or 9 years old, he moved to Bellingham with his family. The boy told police he and his sisters had gone to the store to get a few groceries for their mother and when they came back, their mother left with a friend. Jimenez-Mares was caring for the children while their mother was gone, the court records state.
The boy told police his sisters were in a different room watching the movie "Spirit" and Jimenez-Mares told them to not to come out of the room because he had to talk with the boy.
The boy told police Jimenez-Mares told him to pull down his pants and then Jimenez-Mares sexually assaulted him, according to court records.
The child told police he remembered wondering "if this was healthy for his body and maybe a doctor told (Jimenez-Mares) to do this to him," the court records state.
The child's mother told police she didn't remember sending her kids out for groceries that day, but did tell police that "Spirit" was one of the boy's favorite movies that he and his sisters would watch, the records show.
