Suspect Arrested for Three Reported Rapes

A Santa Barbara man has been arrested for allegedly raping three different women on three different occasions since December 2009. Jerry Providence Bonhomme, a 30-year-old felony probationer, was arrested for each of the alleged assaults and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on three bails of $100,000 each.

This past February, a 24-year-old Isla Vista resident reportedly met Bonhomme while they were both at EOS Lounge. According to the Santa Barbara Police Department, the victim was heavily intoxicated when Bonhomme took her to his residence at 3060 Paseo Tranquillo, where she threw up and then passed out on Bonhomme’s bed. She was later awakened while Bonhomme was allegedly sexually assaulting her. He reportedly stopped after she asked him to, but the victim worried he would assault her again, so she left the room and screamed, which alerted Bonhomme’s roommate. Bonhomme then drove the woman back to her downtown-located vehicle. When she got back to her Isla Vista home, the victim reported what had happened.

Detective Brian Larson, who worked on all three cases against Bonhomme, arrested him for the February incident after viewing EOS’s security footage. Bonhomme was booked into County Jail on the charges of raping an intoxicated person, digital penetration, and cocaine use.

Although the third of the three incidents to occur, this victim’s reporting of the alleged rape encouraged the two other victims to come forward.

Another of Bonhomme’s alleged victims — a 32-year-old who said she initially felt pressured by her and Bonhomme’s mutual friends to keep quiet about the alleged assault — told police that he raped her in December 2011. According to the SBPD, the woman was partying with her boyfriend in Santa Barbara when they, because they didn’t have their own vehicle, accepted a ride home from Bonhomme. Police said Bonhomme didn’t drive them to their own home, though, because the victim alleges she later woke up on Bonhomme’s bed while he was having sex with her. After realizing that the man having sex with her was not her boyfriend, the victim told Bonhomme to stop, after which he drove the victim and her boyfriend home.

For this particular incident, Bonhomme was charged last month — while he was being held in County Jail — for the rape of a victim unconscious of the nature of the act.

Another victim, a 33-year-old woman, told the police of a December 2009 instance in which Bonhomme allegedly raped her, too. She, like the 32-year-old victim, was at first wary of reporting what happened, given her and Bonhomme’s shared social circle. According to the police, the victim, Bonhomme, and their friends were partying first at Baja Sharkeez and later at a Santa Barbara residence, where the victim awoke to Bonhomme allegedly assaulting her. She pushed him off of her, and he stopped.

Earlier this month, Larson again arrested Bonhomme while he was in custody, this time on charges of rape of a victim unconscious of the nature of the act, and for sexual battery.

The SBPD said that each of the women has been referred to the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center.

Other cases against Bonhomme are still being investigated, and the SBPD encourages other potential victims to come forward.