Arraignment delayed in alleged sexual assault case due to need for interpreter

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Diaz
Diaz/MPD

MANCHESTER, NH – A 36-year-old woman told police she started “screaming her head off” after she awoke to a stranger with a machete sexually assaulting her earlier this month.

“Want to have sex mommy?” the man asked her after ripping open her leggings, sexually assaulting her and masturbating, according to court documents on file in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern Division.

Jose Polanco Diaz, 24, of 383 Hayward St., #2, is under arrest in the Sept. 4, 2020 attack.  He is charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, burglary, criminal threatening and two counts of falsifying physical evidence. 

He was to be arraigned Tuesday in Superior Court but his case was rescheduled for Wednesday because he needs a Spanish interpreter.

Investigators said the assault happened at 9:10 a.m. inside an Auburn Street basement apartment.  According to court filings, the woman was sleeping when she woke to a man touching her leg. Initially, she thought it was her boyfriend and she “brushed” his hand away saying she was tired and sleeping.  The man continued touching her leg and then ripped open her leggings and sexually assaulted her.

She told Officer Lisa Callahan she never saw the man before and she immediately tried to get away from him when, three or four times, he swung a two-foot-long machete. She screamed and her assailant fled the scene with her purse and cell phone.

She described the attacker as a 6-foot-black man in his 30s with a skinny build and a short Afro.  He was last seen wearing a green or black shirt and shorts.

About five minutes after the alleged assault, police set up a perimeter. Officer James Pittman reported seeing a Hispanic man, later identified as Polanco Diaz, wearing black shorts enter Mr. Market at 297 Spruce St. Pittman reported that at that point in time, Polanco Diaz did not fully fit the assailant’s description, his demeanor was calm and he did not appear to be nervous or out of breath.

Later, however, investigators obtained video footage from several locations and took still images from them which were sent via email to all city police officers.

Pittman reported that after viewing the security footage Polanco Diaz’s shorts appeared to hang at the same height as when he spoke with him earlier and he also appeared to be wearing the same shoes and socks.

According to police, video surveillance recorded Polanco Diaz in the general area of the Auburn Street apartment where the assault happened.  The woman’s purse, her cell phone and a machete also were found in the area he traveled.

Detective Peter Flanagan created a photo array of six individuals, including Polanco Diaz, and the woman viewed them one at a time.  She identified the fifth photograph as her attacker, saying “Yes, 100 percent sure,” according to Flanagan’s affidavit.  That individual was not Polanco Diaz.

She was then shown the sixth photograph and she said, “Oh, wait a minute, I’m not 100 percent sure.”  The woman tensed up when she saw that photo and said, “this more like him that (cq) the other one did.”  

However, Detective Michael Lavallee asked her if she wanted to go through the photographs again.  She said she needed a minute because she was still shaken up.  She then viewed the photos again.  Number 5, she said, looked like him but when he showed her the photo of Polanco Diaz she said, “Oh, I am pretty sure it was him.”

Lavallee asked her how certain she was and she said “85  percent” as she was focused on the machete and it was really scary, Flanagan wrote.

Polanco Diaz, in the meantime, voluntarily agreed to go to the police department for an interview.  He told police he had been smoking marijuana at Kennedy Fried Chicken, 326 Maple St., and then went to an abandoned basement apartment looking for bicycles.  He said he did not encounter anyone there and left after a few minutes.

The woman’s apartment is a basement-style apartment with little to no furniture/belongings as she was in the process of moving, police said.

Polanco Diaz denied assaulting anyone.

If convicted, Polanco Diaz faces up to 30 years in prison on the sex assault offense and up to seven years each on the criminal threatening and falsifying physical evidence charges. 

About this Author

Pat Grossmith

Pat Grossmith is a freelance reporter.