Fourth Person Arrested By ICE Identified As Guatemalan Man Facing Sexual Assault Charge

A fourth individual who was taken into custody by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents earlier this month on Nantucket was identified Tuesday afternoon as Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez, a 44-year-old Guatemalan man.

Gomez had previously been arraigned on a charge of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over in Nantucket District Court on Aug. 19. After pleading not guilty, Perez-Gomez was released from custody on personal recognizance.

Just three weeks later on Sept. 11, Gomez was arrested by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston team and remains in ERO custody.

“Perez unlawfully entered the United States on an unknown date, at an unknown location and without being inspected, admitted, or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” ICE's ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons said in a press release.

This isn’t Perez’s first encounter with law enforcement either in the United States, according to ERO Boston.

ERO previously arrested Perez on June 8, 2011, following his arrest for reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person in Pennsylvania. ERO served Perez with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge. The Upper Makefield District Court convicted Perez on July 11, 2011, of reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person and sentenced him to one year of probation.

On July 29, 2011, a Department of Justice immigration judge ordered Perez removed from the United States to Guatemala, and he was deported just weeks later on Aug. 11, 2011

Since his deportation, Perez unlawfully reentered the United States at an unknown location on an unknown date, according to ICE.

The details of the alleged incident that led to his arrest on the island were outlined in a police report filed with the Nantucket District Court, which stated a female reported being sexually assaulted in the area of Miacomet Road and Ellens Way. The alleged victim told a female friend at The Chicken Box about the incident, who then told a Massachusetts State Trooper in the area. When NPD officer Derek Witherell arrived on the scene he saw a female who was visibly upset and told him the suspect was in his 30s with slick black hair, and that the incident occurred after he picked her up at the end of Polliwog Road.

The alleged victim told police the man locked the doors and pulled the car over before sexually assaulting her. While Witherell was speaking to the alleged victim, a vehicle drove by and when Witherell asked if it was the vehicle in question, the woman replied that it was.

The vehicle was stopped approximately 200 feet from where Witherell and the female were standing, and the operator was identified as Perez. The suspect said he was new to the area and going for a drive in his friend’s vehicle. He denied ever picking anyone up.

A "show up ID" was conducted with the female victim and Perez, and the woman was “100 percent” certain Perez was the one who picked her up and sexually assaulted her according to police.

Three other men arrested during ICE's multi-day operation on Nantucket earlier this month have been identified including Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, Gean Do Amaral Belafronte, and Elmer Sola.