SANTA CRUZ — The prosecution has dropped all criminal charges alleging a prominent Aptos real estate broker raped an unconscious family friend after a 2021 party at his home.
Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Michael Mahan said Tuesday that he believed the case, involving an alleged victim identified only as “Jane Doe” in court papers, did not have “sufficient evidence to move forward.”
Mahan withdrew charges against real estate agent and broker Frank DeBernardo, of DeBernardo Team in Capitola, during an otherwise routine trial date-setting hearing Nov. 20 before Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Stephen Siegel. Formerly filed charges included rape of an unconscious victim, rape by force or fear and two counts of witness intimidation or dissuasion.
Such alleged crimes, Mahan added, are not significantly limited by a statute of limitations, meaning that if new information arises, his office will consider refiling charges. However, he declined to specify his motivation for withdrawing the charges.
“Given these are cases that could be refiled, I don’t want to necessarily comment on the specifics of our reasoning at this point,” Mahan said. “We just look at every case holistically and … if there is not enough evidence to proceed, we’ll dismiss and then always look at it again as new things come up.”
Attorney Marc Eisenhart, representing DeBernardo in a civil cross-complaint filed in response to Doe’s earlier civil complaint, said that Doe admitted to lying under oath during her preliminary hearing testimony in January. The testimony was related to a $10,000 payment DeBernardo handed to Doe prior to the filing of criminal charges in August 2022.
According to court records, DeBernardo admitted to having a sexual encounter with Doe but said it was a consensual encounter.
The next hearing in the civil case is set as a case management conference on Jan. 31.