Hilton Head man charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor, police say
A Hilton Head Island man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager earlier this year was arrested last week and charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the third degree, according to court records.
Teofilo Gonzalez-Fermin, 39, was arrested on Nov. 20 for the alleged May 2 sexual assault after a nearly seven-month investigation, according to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office reports.
The teenager called police in May after Gonzalez-Fermin, who is an acquaintance of her family, left her home on Hilton Head Island, according to the report.
While Gonzalez-Fermin was at her house to drop off $400 he owed her family member, he sexually assaulted her, according to the report. She told him to stop multiple times during the assault, the report said.
She told a deputy that she would cooperate in any way because she did not want Gonzalez-Fermin to assault another person, and she didn’t want anyone else to go through what she had just experienced, according to the police report.
A sheriff’s office investigator collected forensic evidence at the scene, and Gonzalez-Fermin was arrested last week. He was living on Sunday Ford Drive on the north end of Hilton Head, according to court records.
As of Tuesday, Gonzalez-Fermin was being held at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office on $150,000 bond and an immigration hold set by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to the Beaufort County jail log.
ICE officials issue detainers on those in law enforcement custody whom they believe are in the country illegally. The detainers request that the local agency hold the person for “ideally at least 48 hours” in custody to give ICE agents time to get the person in federal custody.
Gonzalez-Fermin faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge.
%20Cropped.jpg)