A Bend man arrested last month in connection with what investigators thought was rape was sentenced to 60 days in jail for four lesser charges in Deschutes County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Jose Escobedo-Preciado, 21, was arrested Sept. 10 after two women who met him at a party reported he had raped one of them and in an ensuing altercation beaten the other with a baseball bat in his car on NE High Desert Lane, according to Bend Police.

Escobedo-Preciado pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants and guilty by way of Alford to one count each of fourth-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and menacing. When a defendant pleads guilty by Alford, he or she recognizes the state has enough evidence for conviction, but he or she does not acknowledge guilt.

Attorney Terry Rahmsdorff, who represented Escobedo-Preciado, noted the indictment handed down by a grand jury late last month was noticeably different from the initial charging document filed by the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office, which had included a charge of first-degree rape.

Police reported Escobedo-Preciado met the women for the first time at a Sept. 10 party and that they all drank before he drove them to northeast Bend.

“After the group consumed alcohol,” Bend Police Lt. Clint Burleigh wrote in a news release Sept. 11, “Escobedo-Preciado drove the two females to the area of High Desert Court and High Desert Lane, where he sexually assaulted one of the females while the other female was asleep in the backseat.”

The sleeping woman woke up and an “altercation ensued,” Burleigh wrote. Escobedo-Preciado allegedly retrieved a baseball bat, and both women were later taken to St. Charles Bend with nonlife-threatening injuries. After the fight, Escobedo-Preciado left, and one of the women called 911, police said.

“I would point out that there are radical differences between where we started and where we ended,” Rahmsdorff said.

He added that his client felt he was defending himself from one of the women, who “went ballistic” after waking up and noticing Escobedo-Preciado and the other woman having sex.

All three had been drinking that night, according to police, and Rahmsdorff told Deschutes County Circuit Judge Walter “Randy” Miller his client admitted to being intoxicated when he returned to the scene of the incident to recover his cellphone.

Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Evander McIver said not all initial allegations “translated” to the indictment, though little was still known about how or why the altercation between the three people broke out.

The grand jury indicted Escobedo-Preciado on first-degree sexual abuse and driving under the influence of intoxicants and two counts each of unlawful use of a weapon, menacing, fourth-degree assault and furnishing alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person under the age of 21. After negotiations between the state and defense, the other charges in the indictment were dismissed.

Escobedo-Preciado was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation, during which he is not to use alcohol or go to bars, and he must attend counseling. The total 60-day sentence was a combination of 30 days for the unlawful use of a weapon charge and 15 days each for fourth-degree assault and menacing charges. He was sentenced to 18 months supervised probation on the DUII charge and is required to attend a victim impact panel.

Rahmsdorff said Escobedo-Preciado was a high school graduate, a father and engaged to be married.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376,

cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com