Prosecutors drop sexual assault charges in Las Vegas DNA case

Prosecutors have dropped all charges against a man after police said his DNA tied him to a sex assault nearly 30 years ago.

Francisco Maldonado, 48, was initially arrested in February on a warrant and charged with five count of sex assault stemming from a 1995 rape at a bus stop on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Court records show prosecutors moved to dismiss the case March 9, two weeks after Maldonado was arrested.

The district attorney’s office could not be reached for comment after the case was dismissed.

An arrest report released last month said Maldonado’s DNA, which was maintained at the Metropolitan Police Department’s crime lab, was a match of 1 in 293 octillion to the woman’s sample taken in 1995.

Maldonado was serving time in a California prison, Metro said, for a 2003 rape case.

After the DNA match came back in 2019, detectives contacted the woman, but she said she did not want to move forward with the case.

Police could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.