Leandro Pereyra. Courtesy | JailTracker

Police arrested a Litchfield man accused of rape at a local hotel over Easter weekend.

Officers with the City of Hillsdale Police Department arrested 35-year-old Leandro Pereyra on suspicion of raping a woman in a hotel room early Easter Sunday, according to the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office. 

“She was the fiancee of Pereyra’s friend who was passed out from alcohol and in the hotel room,” Prosecutor Neal Brady said. “He was arrested early Sunday morning at the hotel room.”

Pereyra claimed the incident was consensual, according to Brady. 

Officers booked Pereyra into the county jail just after 5 a.m., according to JailTracker. His bond was set at $40,000 with 10% allowed. If he pays bond, Brady said, the court would place him on a GPS tether. The sheriff’s office said the suspect was homeless.

Brady said prosecutors charged Pereyra with criminal sexual conduct in the third degree, which carries a 15-year maximum sentence. 

“He may have been booked after arrest on a CSC first degree charge, which is a life offense, but that assessment of the crime was in error,” Brady said. “The offense did not fit the criteria for a CSC in the first degree.”

Brady said either he or Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jamie Wisniewski will prosecute Pereyra, and attorney Kimm Burger said she will defend him.

Burger said she had not gotten the chance to speak with him since she was assigned the case Tuesday.

“I’m looking at some of the information, and I already know by the police report, there’s still a lot of things that are not kosher,” Burger said. 

Pereyra will face a probable cause conference before District Court Judge Megan Stiverson on April 19 at 10 a.m., according to the court docket.