Rape, kidnapping case dismissed on motion that defendant ‘is not the correct suspect’

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The rape and kidnapping case against 20-year-old Josue E. Vado-Urbina has been dismissed with prejudice, according to court documents dated Nov. 6, which include a motion from the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office stating that the wrong person had been arrested. 

The motion was “made in the interests of justice as evidence has surfaced to indicate that this defendant is not the correct suspect in this case,” according to the filing, signed by Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Rodriguez.

Magistrate Judge Tera Harden signed the order of dismissal on Nov. 6, granting the state’s motion and further ordering that “any and all warrants in this case shall be quashed; any and all hearings shall be vacated”; and all bonds still on file be exonerated and returned to the individual who posted them.

Vado-Urbina, identified in a Nov. 4 city of Sandpoint press release as “of Nicaragua,” had been scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing Nov. 13 before Magistrate Judge Justin Julian, facing felony charges of rape and second-degree kidnapping stemming from an arrest Nov. 2 following reports that an alleged victim was being held against her will and had been sexually assaulted.

According to the city of Sandpoint release, police arrested Vado-Urbina after an unidentified individual alerted officers that she’d received a text from the alleged victim. Court records indicate a search warrant was issued for the K2 Motel on Fourth Avenue in Sandpoint.

In addition to taking Vado-Urbina into custody, Sandpoint police also made contact with two other males, who were unnamed in the news release, but have been identified by various sources on social media that could not be verified as accurate by the Reader. 

Those individuals were transported by border patrol agents to verify their immigration status, according to the city’s news release.

Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol station in Spokane did not respond to a request for comment or to provide any additional information.

Vado-Urbina had been held at the Bonner County Jail on a bond of $250,000, but no longer appeared on the inmate roster as of press time.

Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon told the Reader in an email Nov. 13 that the case remains “an active investigation, and we are not releasing any public statements at this time.”