April 24, 2011 Security guard charged with raping cleaning company employee www.privateofficer.com
San Mateo CA April 24 2011 A contract security guard who worked at Electronic Arts pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he repeatedly sexually assaulted a cleaning woman at the video game company’s Redwood City offices.
Pacifica resident Raymond Nygard, 29, worked for a security company hired by EA, headquartered on Redwood Shores Parkway, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The victim worked weekends for a cleaning service also contracted by EA.
On three separate Sundays — two in January and one in February — Nygard sexually assaulted the woman at work and threatened to have her fired or her immigration status challenged if she did not comply, said Wagstaffe, adding the woman was a legal immigrant.
Wagstaffe said Nygard raped the woman once and forced her to perform oral sex on him twice. The victim reported the assaults to her supervisor Feb. 10, four days after the last assault, he said.
Nygard has been charged with rape, oral copulation against the victim’s will, sexual battery and kidnapping to commit rape. He faces the kidnapping charge because during one incident he allegedly picked up the victim and took her to another room to assault her, Wagstaffe said.
The assaults took place in a cafeteria-type room, an office and in a utility room, Wagstaffe said. The assaults happened out of view of the building’s surveillance cameras, so there is no recording of the incidents, he said.
“That was no accident, since the guy worked there in security,” Wagstaffe said. “He would know what areas were covered by the camera and which were not.”
Nygard’s defense attorney, Charles J. Smith, said the sex acts were “consensual activities.”
“We’re looking forward to going to trial,” Smith said.
An Electronic Arts spokesperson said the safety of its employees and contract workers is a “top priority” and the company takes seriously “every complaint and incident that occurs on our campus.”
“When we were alerted to this complaint we immediately contacted law enforcement and the contractors who employ the people involved,” EA Senior Public Relations Manager Nyla Comisso wrote in an email.
A jury trial is scheduled to begin June 6, Wagstaffe said. Nygard is being held in county jail on $750,000 bail.
Source:Mercury News
Tags: Electronic Arts, Raymond Nygard, Security guard charged with raping cleaning company employee
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