A Texas man accused of drugging, raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl has been released from jail on $1 bond — after prosecutors missed the deadline to indict him by two days.
Luis Sanchez, 25, walked out of the Harris County jail Thursday — three months after his arrest on a charge of felony sexual assault of a child.
In the Lone Star State, prosecutors are required to secure an indictment within 90 days of a suspect being in custody.
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Since Sanchez was listed in court records as indigent, a judge granted his lawyer’s petition to lower his bond amount to $1 this week.
The mother of the alleged rape victim slammed Sanchez’s release on bond as “an egregious miscarriage of justice” in an interview with ABC13, during which she had her voice altered to shield her family.
In April 2022, Sanchez invited the teenage girl and her siblings over to his home in Houston Heights to play games. During the visit, he allegedly gave the 16-year-old a drink of Smirnoff vodka, according to court records cited by the station Fox 26.
He then allegedly sent the girl’s siblings back home but said she could spend the night at his house.
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The teenager later told officials that on the night of the sleepover, she had passed out after drinking vodka and later woke up naked in bed next to Sanchez.
The alleged rape resulted in the pregnancy — and a DNA test confirmed that Sanchez was the biological father of the girl’s baby.
Sanchez was arrested in May — more than a year after the suspected rape. He was freed from jail Thursday afternoon with an ankle monitor and was placed under house arrest at a shelter.
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“God forbid, if he were to get out of the ankle monitor, he would be gone in a flash,” she said.
The woman also said her daughter is “terrified” that Sanchez may try to find her.
“We feel blindsided, because we took comfort in the fact that he was initially granted a $75,000 bond, because we could sleep at night knowing he could not make that bond,” the mom said, referring to the suspect’s initial bond amount.
Sanchez is due back in court in November.
* ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/22/accused-child-rapist-granted-1-bond-over-deadline-mishap/amp/
