Woman: Salesman preyed on her girls

Two men appeared at an Omaha woman's door in March, offering to sell her pots and pans. They cooked dinner for her and she bought a few items, placing the purchases in a kitchen cabinet at her home near 13th and Martha Streets.

At the end of May, one of the men called and offered to help her make payments on the cookware with government aid. The man also said he could help the woman obtain a false marriage license, pay off bills and find a better-paying job, she said.

In order for her to be an acceptable applicant, he said, she and her daughters would have to undergo “testing,” according to court documents.

The testing involved swabbing the vaginas of her and her daughters, ages 7 and 10, in the living room of their home, the documents allege.

“He said ‘I will help you,'” the woman told The World-Herald on Thursday. “It was all a trick. All lies.”

Ruben Rosado Barradas, 22, has been charged with first-degree sexual assault and two counts of first degree sexual assault of a child. Douglas County Court Judge Susan Bazis this morning ordered that Barradas be held on $1 million bail. To be released, he would have to post 10 percent, or $100,000.

Lt. Darci Tierney, an Omaha police spokeswoman, said police think there may be additional victims in Omaha and asked people to report any similar incidents by calling 911 or the department's child victim assault unit at 444-5636.

The man told the mother he would have to return and do the tests again if they came out wrong, the woman said.

He later contacted the woman and said the tests showed that one of her daughters was very sick. He told her he would send medication. When it did not arrive, she contacted police.

The woman, 34, said the man preyed on her, seeming to be sincere and truthful.

She is a single mother with little money, whose daughters have health problems. One is disabled; the other has kidney problems, she said.

The woman cannot read or write English, she said. She hesitated to agree to the testing but did so, she said, in an effort to improve her family's situation.

The children have now been taken by the state and placed with their father, she said.

“My children were happy here,” she said. “He (Barradas) destroyed everything.”

The woman gave the man the names and telephone numbers of eight other women she knew. He said that if she gave him this information, he would enter her in a contest.

To locate the man, Omaha police contacted a representative of the cookware company, Royal Prestige, in Des Moines. Edgar Parada, a territory manager for the Omaha area, said a man named Ruben Rosado no longer worked for the company. The manager said the man had been in the Omaha area for four months and previously worked for Royal Prestige in Indiana.

Indianapolis police said a Ruben Rosado Barradas with the same date of birth was arrested in July 2008 on suspicion of forcing a 15-year-old to have sex with him. He had sold cookware to her family and offered her employment at Royal Prestige, according to court documents.

The man was released on bail from a Marion County, Ind., jail on Sept. 6. The case was dismissed in April.

Omaha police found Barradas with information from Indianapolis police and the U.S. Marshal's Office, in addition to postal and telephone records, according to court documents.

The Omaha woman identified the man from a photo lineup.

Contact the writer:

444-1022, katie.fretland@owh.com