Longtime El Patron restaurant owner remains in custody on rape charges

About 20 family members and friends of a woman allegedly raped by a longtime Kansas City restaurant owner packed a Jackson County courtroom Tuesday morning hoping the man would not be released on bond.

After a short court appearance, Arturo Cabral, 44, was held over for a bond hearing Jan. 25. He currently is being held in the Jackson County Detention Center on $500,000 bond.

Cabral was charged with three counts of rape earlier this month after prosecutors accused him of sexually assaulting two women.

Cabral had been the longtime owner of El Patron on Southwest Boulevard, but a spokeswoman for the restaurant has said he no longer owns the business.

The charges involve incidents in 2015 and 2016 with two alleged victims.

Most of the family and friends at the court hearing Tuesday said they were there in support of one of the women, a 19-year-old who reportedly told police that Cabral raped her at his house in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood of Kansas City last June.

She did not initially make a police report because Cabral is a friend of her father’s, according to court documents. She later told police that she had several drinks and spent the night with Cabral’s daughter, who was about her age.

The woman reportedly said that she woke up, and Cabral was having intercourse with her. She said the next memory she had was waking up the next day.

On Tuesday, the woman’s grandmother said she thinks there may be more rape victims who haven’t come forward yet, which was one reason why family members opposed any bond reduction that could allow Cabral’s release.

“They’re afraid to come forward,” the grandmother said. “We don’t want him to have a bond reduction. We came here to make sure that he doesn’t.”

Family members said the 19-year-old is staying out of town with relatives.

Cabral is also accused in an earlier incident that reportedly occurred at a midtown Kansas City hotel in November 2015.

A 32-year-old woman told Kansas City police that she met Cabral at a bar on the Country Club Plaza.

She said that while talking at the bar, Cabral ordered her a drink and she asked for a glass of water.

The woman told police she doesn’t remember anything after that until she woke up about eight hours later in a hotel room.

The woman went to a hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault examination. The examination turned up DNA matching Cabral, according to court documents.

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Longtime El Patron restaurant owner remains in custody on rape charges."