Woman testifies about alleged sex crime at Berkeley restaurant
The DA's office charged Carlos Salgado Cruz II with sexual battery by restraint and sexual penetration by a foreign object.
The case against a young man charged with sex crimes against a woman he met on a popular dating app can proceed to trial, an Alameda County judge has ruled.
Last week, the woman — who was identified in court as Jane Doe — took the stand to describe how her first and only date with Carlos Salgado Cruz II went terribly wrong.
On the stand, she described how she'd met Salgado on Tinder, when she was 18 and he was 20.
It was her first date on the app, she said.
The two made a plan to see the Barbie movie, which had just come out the week before. It was late July of 2023.
"He seemed sweet, so I wanted to go with him," she said.
Before he picked her up, however, Salgado said he didn't want to see the movie because it was "for sissies," she said.
Instead, he took her to the downtown Berkeley McDonald's where they got food to take back to Tigerlily, the North Berkeley restaurant on Shattuck Avenue where Salgado worked as a barback.
The restaurant was closed but Salgado had a key. He made them both cocktails and they sat at the bar talking, she said.
The young woman said Salgado seemed to be drunk, "slurring his words."
"He kept leaning on me… like he couldn't stand properly," she said.
She testified that she asked him several times to take her home, but he kept getting "distracted by something else."
The woman said she had asked Salgado to leave when they first got to the restaurant.
"I just didn't feel right sitting in a closed bar," she said. Instead of taking her home, however, "he kept talking about himself."
They ended up sitting in the empty restaurant for about two hours.
When Salgado finally agreed to take her home, she said, he went to use the restroom in the back of the restaurant.
"I remember him telling me, it's funny 'cuz there's no cameras around there," she testified.
About 30 seconds later, she decided to go, too.
But, when she got back to the bathrooms, she said, Salgado was waiting for her.
He grabbed her hair to pull her head back and pulled her in for a kiss, she said. It made her feel uncomfortable.
At that point, she said, Salgado started to choke her, as he opened the women's bathroom door and pushed her inside.
She remembered struggling to breathe, and said he pushed her into the corner "so I couldn't escape."
He turned her around, so her back was toward him, and continued to choke her, she said. She could hear him trying to unzip his pants and remembered feeling his forearm against her back.
"I thought I was going to die," she said.
"Did you tell him to stop?" prosecutor Olivia Suraci asked her.
"Yes, I screamed it," she said. "More than 20 [times]."
"He told me that I wanted it," she said, which she understood to mean, "that I deserved to be raped."
She recalled crying and said Salgado eventually let her go.
"It felt like forever, but it was probably around 5-10 minutes," she said.
On the ride home, she said, she "tried to pretend like everything was OK."
"He grabbed my hand and held it as if we were a happy couple," she said. "I was scared he was gonna get angry. I didn't want what just happened to happen again."
When they got back to her block in Alameda, he parked far from her front door, she said.
He asked if she wanted to go out with him again, and she said she'd have to think about it.
When she tried to get out of the car, he reached across her body and pulled her door closed, she said. It didn't feel like leaving was an option.
Then he put his hand down her pants, she said.
She said she was scared and crying, and told him she didn't want to do it.
He grabbed her hand and put on his pants, she said.
Then he kissed her goodbye and told her, "I can't wait for our second date," she said.
When she finally got back inside, she felt disgusted. All she wanted to do was shower. And sleep.
Emilie Raguso
Before bed, she sent Salgado some texts, describing how he had gotten mad at her at the bar when she told him she didn't want to be exclusive.
In the texts, she also referenced what happened in the bathroom, writing: "You kept going after I said stop."
She said Salgado sent her an explicit video of himself — which she hadn't wanted to receive.
"Ew," was her only response.
She immediately told a close friend what happened and also spoke to her therapist about it.
But she didn't report it to police until a month or so after the date.
"Usually victims don't really get heard," she explained on the stand.
"I didn't want to," she added. "My therapist made me call."
During cross-examination, defense attorney Walter McMath grilled the woman about her "habits" on Tinder, why she had chosen to go on a date with Salgado, what her screen name was on her social media accounts and exactly when their plans had changed from Barbie to Tigerlily.
"He suggested that we go to the bar because it was closed and he had a key," she said. "I was not expecting a fancy date. McDonald's did it for me."
McMath also asked her how she knew there was alcohol in her drink, what they had talked about and if she generally tried to get to know someone on first dates.
He asked at length about everything that happened before they went into the bathroom — including why, exactly, she needed to go.
"Do you remember if it was 'number one' or 'number two'?" he asked, prompting an objection, on relevance grounds, from the prosecution.
Judge Thomas Stevens sustained the objection and subsequently cautioned McMath to narrow his focus to the core issues in the case.
McMath then tried to bring in evidence related to the woman's social media posts but the judge ruled against him.
In the end, Stevens held Salgado to answer on the charges filed against him: sexual battery by restraint and sexual penetration by a foreign object, both felonies.
That means the case can proceed to trial.
Salgado, who is now 22 years old, has been out of custody on bail since shortly after his arrest.
He is set to return to court Aug. 22 for arraignment following the preliminary hearing.
Tigerlily restaurant did not respond this week to a request for comment.
Sexual violence support resources
- Bay Area Women Against Rape: 510-800-4247
- Highland Hospital: 510-437-4800
- RAINN: Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
For more information on sexual violence prevention and resources, UCPD directed members of the campus community to its survivor support website.
