A man linked to sex crimes involving two women near the UC Berkeley campus last week has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors in Alameda County Superior Court, authorities report.
Jesus Dickey, 45, was arrested in People’s Park last week, on Monday, after authorities said he grabbed a student’s buttock, then later forced his way inside another woman’s apartment building and held her captive with sexual intent. Dickey of Berkeley was on probation for assault with a deadly weapon at the time of his arrest, according to court papers.
The Alameda County district attorney’s office has charged Dickey with felony kidnapping to commit a sex crime and felony burglary of an inhabited building. He also was charged with two misdemeanors: indecent exposure and sexual battery.
Both incidents for which he has been charged took place in the early-morning hours of Monday, April 23. The University of California Police Department handled the first incident, at about 1:15 a.m. UCPD said Dickey had “struck up a conversation” with a female student at the Durant Food Court, in the 2500 block of Durant Avenue, at 1:15 a.m. Police said he then followed the student when she left, “continuing to talk to her.”
When the two got to Unit 1, at 2650 Durant Ave., Dickey asked the student for a hug, said UCPD. She declined. The man followed her to Freeborn Hall, which is part of the student housing complex. He grabbed the young woman’s buttock, then followed her inside, according to police. A security monitor at the building entrance told Dickey to leave, and called police, UCPD said in a Nixle alert last week.
Surveillance footage from that incident soon came into play when officers from the nearby Berkeley Police Department were alerted at about 3:10 a.m. to another crime in the neighborhood, just one block over in the 2500 block of Durant.
Police said in court papers that Dickey had forced his way inside a woman’s building, then tried to choke her “as he pinned her against a wall and told her not to yell.” Dickey then “used force and violence,” police wrote, to prevent the woman “from escaping his grasp.”
The woman struggled and tried to get away, but police said Dickey dragged her 60 feet down a hallway into a stairwell, and pulled her to the ground. He stood over her and tried to put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming, but she managed to call 911, police said, and Dickey ran off.
When BPD officers responded to that call, UCPD alerted them to the possible identity of the suspect: They had recognized Dickey from the earlier surveillance footage. UCPD officers found Dickey in People’s Park, at 2556 Haste St., about two blocks south.
BPD said the woman from the second incident identified Dickey as the man who forced his way into her building.
Dickey has a long list of arrests in Alameda County, according to court records online. Officers described him last Monday as someone who was known to law enforcement.
A woman named Mariah, who identified herself as Dickey’s sister, wrote on the Berkeleyside Facebook page, in reference to his arrest, that “mental health plays a part.” She apologized to the women who were hurt, and said her brother has support and is loved.
“Bad things happen to good people,” she wrote. “He is good people … just not in this situation.”
Another woman, who identified herself as Dnyce in the Berkeleyside comments section, made similar remarks in response to the story of his arrest.
“I have known this guy for a very long time. He is college educated and was a star athlete at Berkeley High. I am not making excuses and feel sorry for these ladies,” she wrote. “G was diagnosed with bi polar in college and things have been bad for him every since then. The guy needs Mental help and meds.”
According to the website mylife.com, Dickey graduated from Berkeley High in 1990.
He is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and is set to enter a plea Wednesday at the René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, according to court records online.
