Content warning: This story contains graphic information about sexual assault.
A Dane County judge ruled that a criminal case will continue against two men who pleaded not guilty for an attack and attempted sexual assault of a transgender woman at Goodspeed Family Pier on Aug. 29.
At approximately 4:10 a.m. on Aug. 29, University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWPD) responded to a call from a bystander reporting a disturbance on the pier. Officers were dispatched at 4:12 a.m., and when they arrived on the scene, they discovered a sexual assault had occured and arrested two men.
The two men, Yorfred H. Marcano Gutierrez of Fitchburg, 31, and Arturo R. Santos Albujas of Madison, 29, were charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault as a party to a crime, strangulation and suffocation as a party to a crime, false imprisonment to a crime and misdemeanor battery Sept. 1 during an initial court appearance days after they were arrested.
Gutierrez and Albujas were also set on respective cash bonds of $75,000 and $100,000.
UWPD Detective Kyle Van Haren said the victim told him she met Albujas and Gutierrez for the first time near 500 State Street the night of Aug. 29.
She stated the two men invited her to go to an afterparty, but she felt uncomfortable and declined. She said she felt uncomfortable walking to her house alone and went to the pier with the two men after they told her they owned a boat there. When there were no boats, she tried to leave and the men stopped her and assaulted her.
The woman told investigators she feared she might lose consciousness from the attack, and said she’d never been in so much pain before. She was taken to Meriter Hospital, where police documented abrasions on her knees and an open wound on her elbow.
The woman believes the attack was motivated by her transgender identity. Neither UWPD nor the complaint confirmed that was the suspects’ motive.
UWPD received reports of the two men "being very handsy towards and with other females on State Street" in front of Raising Canes before the assault.
In a follow-up interview with UWPD, Gutierrez denied hitting and assaulting the woman.
Police also took photos of blood on Gutierrez’s hands. The suspects and victim were not affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to UWPD’s incident report published after the attack.
The two suspects are currently being held at the Dane County Jail.
