Daniel Chiang Chen
Santa Barbara County – Two years ago, on February 23, 2014, UCSB Police and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a violent gang rape alleged to have taken place on the UCSB campus.
The female victim—after returning to her Isla Vista apartment—promptly notified law enforcement, reporting that she had been assaulted and beaten “by multiple men” according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover.
Upon receipt of the initial report, concerted efforts on the part of SBSD deputies and Search and Rescue units to locate suspects were made but proved fruitless, and no suspects were located at that time.
Ensuing investigation into the victim’s allegations provided “physical evidence including DNA,” yet no suspects were identified for the next two years.
Then just last month Daniel Jiang Chen, a 21-year-old former UCSB student and resident of San Ramon, was the subject of “an unrelated felony arrest in Alameda County,” at which time he was obliged to provide a DNA sample to law enforcement.
Through the resources of the FBI Combined Index System, Chen’s DNA was matched with that found at the crime scene of the 2014 attack, and on February 10th he was arrested and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on charges of rape, false imprisonment, and battery with serious bodily injury.
Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Ladinig’s criminal complaint against Chen specifies multiple counts of forcible rape, alleging “a separate rape with a separate condom” during which Chen “had a reasonable opportunity to reflect upon his actions and nevertheless resumed his sexually assaultive behavior” and raped the victim a second time.
Chen currently remains in custody on a no-bail hold with his felony arraignment scheduled at Santa Barbara Superior Court on March 2, 2016.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
