Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 09/30/2009

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Terry Menshek - (707) 565-3098 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Christine Cook

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

MAN CHARGED WITH FELONY SEXUAL ASSAULT AGAINST ELDERLY VICTIM IN COLD-HIT DNA CASE

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that five felony charges have been filed against Paul Vernon Sullenger (45), for the sexual assault of an elderly woman. The charges include Residential Burglary; Oral Copulation; Criminal Threats; Sexual Battery, and Attempted Residential Burglary. He is next scheduled to appear in court on November 2, 2009, in Dept. 10.

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua stated, “We will seek justice in the form of the maximum sentence for this appalling crime against one of our seniors.”

On November 2, 2008, Sullenger entered the 81-year-old victim’s home, in Rohnert Park, through a broken window and sexually assaulted her for 45 minutes, while threatening that if she told the authorities or didn’t do what he told her to, he would hurt or kill her. The defendant then fled the scene via the bedroom window. After he left, the victim called the authorities. Evidence was collected during a sexual assault exam and sent to the Department of Justice.

Several months later, on June 20, 2009, the victim was home, asleep, when she heard her dogs barking. From her bedroom window, the victim saw a male subject crouching down in the corner of her patio. The unidentified male fled the area by climbing over her fence. When the victim inspected the area, she found that the patio chair, in front of her bedroom window, had been moved and that the window screen had been removed. On September 15, 2009, the California Department of Justice CoDIS databank found that Sullenger was a candidate match to the DNA profile generated from the sexual assault exam.

Deputy District Attorney Tania Partida is the Prosecutor assigned to the case. Detective John Gilson with the Rohnert Park Public Safety is the lead investigator.