BY DAVID GRANT LONG

A 25-year-old Cortez man was arrested Saturday morning and placed on a felony hold for allegedly sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman a few hours earlier, Chief Roy Lane said Monday.

Jose S. Martinez was advised of pending first-degree sexual assault charges Monday morning in Montezuma County Court, according to a court clerk, and remained held in the Montezuma County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

Under Colorado law, first-degree sexual assault is defined as unlawful sexual intrusion or penetration through the use of physical force or violence.

The victim told police she was assaulted by the suspect after she went to his residence with friends for a party where alcohol was consumed, Lane said. The woman said she’d had no prior relationship with Martinez and had only met him a couple of days earlier through a mutual friend, according to Lane.

But according to police reports, Martinez denied he’d had any contact with the woman the previous night after he was located at his ex-wife’s apartment around 3 a.m. He also denied that he lived at the residence where the party had been held, the reports said.

His former wife also told police that he’d been at the apartment since 11 p.m. Friday, well before the assault allegedly occurred, one report said. Police said they found no frost on Martinez’s vehicle parked outside on a night when the temperature dropped to well below freezing.

The woman and other witnesses who told police that Martinez had been present at the party said he was wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt and blue jeans, according to the reports, clothing similar to what the suspect was wearing when arrested. One witness also positively identified Martinez as having been present at the party when she saw him later at the sheriff’s office, one report said.