A fugitive wanted for allegedly sexually assaulting a child in Rahway four years ago has been apprehended in North Carolina, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Friday.
Wilfredo Cabrera, 48, is charged with single counts of second-degree sexual assault of a minor and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
A Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit investigation spearheaded by Detective Brian O’Malley recently resulted in the charges against Cabrera, who is accused of sexually assaulting a juvenile under the age of 13 when he rented a room in the building where the victim lived in 2012, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Nathan Hewette-Guyton, who is prosecuting the case.
Prosecutor’s Office detectives attempted to locate and arrest Cabrera in the Rahway area in late July 2016 before obtaining information that he had fled the state, Hewette-Guyton said. W
ith the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service’s New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force and two of the agency’s field offices in North Carolina and South Carolina, investigators tracked Cabrera to a home on the 1600 block of Ervin Lane in Pineville, North Carolina, where he was arrested without incident early Thursday morning by members of the Marshals Service.
Cabrera is currently incarcerated in the Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) Jail awaiting extradition to New Jersey, where bail has been set at $150,000 by state Superior Court Judge William Daniel. Also assisting in the efforts to locate and apprehend Cabrera were the Chapel Hill and Pineville police departments in North Carolina.
Anyone with additional information about Cabrera’s activities is urged to contact Detective O’Malley at 908-220-4323.
Convictions on second-degree criminal charges are commonly punishable by 5 to 10 years in state prison.