Reynolds extradited back to Minnesota

• Reynolds

WORTHINGTON — After more than a year of being sought by authorities, a Guatemalan man has been extradited from Washington back to Minnesota in regard to criminal sexual conduct charges.

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WORTHINGTON — After more than a year of being sought by authorities, a Guatemalan man has been extradited from Washington back to Minnesota in regard to criminal sexual conduct charges.

Diovani Bernardino Agustin Mazariegos, also known as Yobani Mazariegos, was known locally as Burt Reynolds.

Under the name Reynolds, Mazariegos already had an extensive criminal record in Nobles County before allegedly raping a woman December 1, 2008, while her young daughters were in the home.

Several days after being attacked, the woman was convinced by a friend to contact authorities. At first she only knew her assailant’s first name.

The victim told the officer she knew the man who had assaulted her only by the name Yobani. She said there was no previous relationship between the two, but she knew him from church.

He allegedly came to her door to talk and refused to leave when asked. Instead, she said, he dragged her into the bathroom and raped her. When she tried to fight back, he allegedly threatened to hurt her daughters. One of the little girls opened the bathroom door and saw what was happening and started to scream.

Mazariegos then allegedly dragged the woman into the bedroom and assaulted her again. Believing the man’s threats against her daughters, the victim said she did not resist.

Afterward, the man apologized and told her not to cry, she said. He allegedly said he had gotten carried away and made a mistake, then ran away. The woman said she called her pastor and told him what had happened, so the pastor spoke to Mazariegos, who claimed what had happened between the two had been consensual. The woman was afraid to call authorities, believing Mazariegos would make good on his threat to hurt he children. Eventually, a friend convinced her to talk to law enforcement.

She told the investigating officer later she had learned the man’s full name and had a DVD of him getting baptized in her church. Upon viewing the video, the officer identified the man as one he knew as Reynolds. When authorities went to PM Windom, Reynolds’ place of employment, they learned he had left the plant at noon without telling anyone.

When authorities were unable to locate Mazariegos at work, they went to his home. A woman greeted them at the door and claimed she didn’t know anyone by the name Yobani, but knew Burt Reynolds. Later she admitted the man the officers were looking for was her brother Mazariegos, who used the Reynolds name to work. He had been in Minnesota, she said, for at least five years.

In those five years, “Reynolds” was charged in various cases with crimes ranging from drunk driving to property damage to burglary.

Just days before the victim in the rape case came forward, Reynolds was in Nobles County District Court to plead guilty and be sentenced for receiving stolen property and burglary. Having been picked up on warrants in several cases April 29, 2008, Reynolds sat in jail unable to make bond until early September, when he made a court appearance and entered into a plea agreement. Charges in several cases were dismissed, and pre-sentence investigations in two others were ordered.

On Dec. 9, he was sentenced to 18 months in a state correctional facility. That sentence was stayed on the condition Reynolds serve 210 days in the county jail and five years probation. With credit for the time served from April to September, he was free to go.

On Dec. 10, the rape victim told authorities she had learned her assailant’s full name. By then, Reynolds was nowhere to be found.

The initial warrant for his arrest included surrounding states, but it was later modified to full extradition.

In January of this year, a detective from the Worthington Police Department received a phone call from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. According to ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers, Mazariegos had been encountered by ICE at a jail in Snohomish County, Washington, as part of ICE’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP).

The ICE office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) assigns agents to interview foreign-born inmates held in federal, state and local prisons and jails and place detainers on criminal aliens to process them for removal before they released to the general public. According to Dankers, criminal charges take precedent over civil or administrative ICE charges.

Dankers said Mazariegos had been picked up by the Washington State Patrol, possibly because of the Worthington warrants. His address at the time of his arrest was in Everett, Wash.

He arrived at the Nobles County Jail Tuesday, and bond was set Wednesday at $100,000. He currently is facing four first degree criminal sexual conduct charges, along with two second-degree and a third- and fourth-degree counts and terroristic threats charge. There will likely be probation violation charges forthcoming.

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