Police arrested Trevor Pacquette on a present case, but evidence linked him to several alleged incidents from a decade and a half ago.
More questions over the handling of rape cases in Hollywood are being raised after a man who was arrested last year on sexual assault charges involving a juvenile wasn't charged until Monday in a kidnapping and sexual battery case from 2003.
Trevor Lorenzo Pacquette, 37, appeared in court Monday where he was ordered held without bond on four counts of sexual battery and one count of armed kidnapping in the 2003 cold case.
According to an arrest affidavit, the victim said she was walking in the area of South State Road 7 and Washington Street the night of Dec. 28, 2003, when she was approached by an unknown man, later identified as Pacquette.
He suddenly grabbed her, pointed a gun at her back and told her "if you make a scene, scream or cry I am going to shoot you," the affidavit said.
Pacquette forced her to go to a nearby car dealership, where he ordered her into a car and told her to remove her clothing, the affidavit said. She refused and he put the gun in her mouth, forcing her to comply, the affidavit said.
"If you try to get out of the car or run I will shoot you," he told her, according to the affidavit.
Pacquette repeatedly sexually battered the victim in the car, the affidavit said. Before he fled he also warned her that if she told anyone what happened "I will come and look for you," the affidavit said.
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The victim went to police and a rape kit was performed, and was later submitted to the Broward County Sheriff's Office crime laboratory, the affidavit said. The kit apparently wasn't linked to Pacquette until his arrest last August on the sexual assault charges involving a 17-year-old girl.
According to an arrest report, Pacquette was found completely naked in a car parked along Northwest 9th Street in unincorporated Broward County with the 17-year-old in the front passenger seat. Pacquette spontaneously told deputies that he had been having sex with the teen, according to the report.
Evidence collected during that case was tied to the 2003 Hollywood case, the affidavit said. A warrant was issued just last week for Pacquette in the 2003 case, and he was arrested Sunday after he was found with another man's wallet that had been stolen out of a car, the affidavit said.
Pacquette was released on bond following his arrest in August. Records showed he has a lengthy criminal record, including a 2006 grand theft arrest, a 2008 cocaine possession arrest, a 2011 cocaine manufacturing arrest and more grand theft charges in 2013.
It's unknown why it took so long to connect Pacquette with the alleged 2003 case. According to the affidavit, Hollywood Police received a Broward Sheriff's Office crime lab report dated Jan. 20, 2006, that said a routine search of BSO's database and the National DNA Database produced a possible lead in the case that named Pacquette.
NBC 6 has reached out to Hollywood Police for comment and is waiting to hear back.
The police department faced criticism after it was revealed in 2014 that dozens of sexual assault evidence kits had been locked up in an evidence room and were never submitted to the crime lab. After an audit, 24 cases were reviewed and two arrests were made, police said.
The police chief at the time, Frank Fernandez, said he has created a special unit to handle all sexual assault cases and all rape test kits are now analyzed.
