Department of Homeland Security officials are blasting Minnesota authorities after a Mexican illegal alien with a long record of sexual assaults and violence was released after ICE lodged a detainer against him in May.
Eduart Gomez Ochoa, 28, who first entered the United States illegally in November 2000, was arrested on October 24 after a two-day manhunt.
Ochoa is now charged with first-degree burglary and attempted kidnapping for allegedly reaching through a ground-level apartment window in St. Paul last Thursday, grabbing a 21-year-old woman who was cooking near the window, and trying to pull her outside before she kicked and screamed until he fled.
Police recovered a hat and headband at the scene that the victim said belonged to him.
The victim later identified him from a photo lineup.
In a post on X about the case, DHS wrote, “This criminal alien should have NEVER been released. Eduart Gomez Ochoa, a Mexican national with a rap sheet a mile long, was recently RELEASED by local officials in Minnesota. Shortly after his release, he reoffended and has been apprehended again.”
“ICE first lodged a detainer for Gomez Ochoa in May. Minnesota officials should honor this detainer so that this serial sexual assaulter can be finally be deported,” the post continued.
In May, Ochoa was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct, first-degree burglary, and third-degree assault after allegedly entering another apartment in St. Paul through a window and sexually assaulting a girl by sucking on her foot while holding her down.
Ochoa was arrested about ten days later and admitted to assaulting the girl but claimed he had met her at a gas station.
Within days of that arrest, he was also accused of two additional sexual assaults in Maplewood in which he allegedly approached women, groped them, and in one case bit a victim’s face.
Court records and local reporting show he has prior arrests for domestic abuse in violation of a protection order, multiple domestic assaults, felony threats of violence, felony fleeing a police officer, felony burglary, providing a false name, leaving the scene of a collision, dangerous weapons, theft, obstruction, and third-degree assault.
