An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Santino “Sonny” Rando, the owner of Santino’s restaurant, who failed to appear for trial on charges he sexually assaulted a woman using a date-rape drug.
Denver District Judge Larry Naves immediately increased Rando’s bond to $100,000 and state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the immigration service, have been notified, said Lynn Kimbrough of the Denver district attorney’s office.
Kimbrough said that Rando, who had earlier posted a $50,000 bond, may hold dual citizenship in the United States and Itay.
Naves had granted a motion to allow prosecutors to introduce evidence involving two other women who claimed they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Rando. Both had worked at Santino’s as waitresses.
The woman who was the accuser in Monday’s case, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, told detectives that she and Rando had gone out on Aug. 10, 2004.
The Denver Post does not name victims of alleged sexual assaults.
The woman told investigators that Rando had hired her after seeing her work at a different restaurant. She said Rando told her he’d take her out to teach her about different wines.
“She thought she was going to learn about wine, eat and then go home,” Detective David Colaizzi said in an arrest warrant affidavit.
However, she said that after going to a Lakewood restaurant and drinking wine, they went to Rando’s house, where she began to feel sick. She said she lost consciousness. She woke up once and said Rando was performing oral sex on her. She woke again and said Rando was raping her, according to the affidavit.
She said she was scared, weak and unable to stop the restaurant owner.
The accuser said that she couldn’t say anything or move during the alleged assault. The next morning, she found herself naked on a mattress. The woman said she asked Rando to drive her home and once there called police.
Rando, 43, was charged with one count of sexual assault, “victim incapable.”
The Colorado Department of Health and Environment tested the woman’s urine and found an extremely high amount of the date-rape drug commonly called GHB, authorities said.
Rando told detectives that the sex was consensual.
Individuals with additional information about Rando or his whereabouts are asked to call the Denver district attorney’s office at 720-913-9087.
