DENVER — One day before the arrest of a suspected serial rideshare rapist in August, employees at the Tracks Nightclub in Denver's River North (RiNo) neighborhood filmed the suspect and sent it to the Denver Police Department for evidence.
John Pastor-Mendoza, 41, was arrested August 19 and is facing 41 felony charges, including kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and attempting to sexually assault several women, the Denver District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
The DA's office listed at least 10 victims in this case, who were all at downtown Denver bars or nightclubs before the alleged crimes took place. The last three victims were allegedly at Tracks before the incidents occurred — the last known incident was in July.
On August 18, Tracks manager Mario Najera said Pastor-Mendoza, a regular at the establishment, was observed walking into the club with another man they've seen him there with before.
"We kept cool, acted like everything was normal," Najera said.
A few days prior, Denver police provided Najera and his team a description of a suspect that victim's gave authorities. Najera said Pastor-Mendoza came to mind.
"We had him in the building. We wanted to catch him at all angles, get as much camera footage as we possibly could," the manager told Denver7. "We had staff members more than willing to get in front of him to pose, to act as if everything was normal, but in the background, we were watching him and collecting evidence for Denver police."
Najera provided several photos and videos of Pastor-Mendoza in the establishment.
When staff noticed Pastor-Mendoza waiting in line to get into Tracks, they pretended like the establishment had a new ID verification system, asking to scan his drivers license when really they snapped a photo of it. Then they took pictures of his car and license plate, as well as photos of him inside the bar. They even captured the moment when a woman leaving the bar nearly got into his vehicle.
"I see him stick his arm out the window to wave this female in," Najera said. "I immediately ran over, and I was like, 'Hey, can I see your phone just to confirm that this is your Lyft driver?' The female pulled out her phone and showed me and confirmed that that was not the Lyft driver that she called. She was just about to get into that vehicle with him."
Tracks staff sent the photos and videos to Denver PD.
Officers showed a photo of Pastor-Mendoza in a photo array to one of the alleged victims, who identified Pastor-Mendoza as the suspect in this case.
Within 24 hours, officers arrested Pastor-Mendoza at his apartment located on Leetsdale Drive.