Superior man faces sex assault

A man accused of raping a woman who had been sleeping in her Superior apartment made his initial appearance in Douglas county Circuit Court Thursday.

Christopher Dean Bunten, 41, of Superior faces felony counts of burglary of a building or dwelling and second degree sexual assault stemming from an alleged January incident. He was released on a $2,000 signature bond with the condition that he have no contact with the victim.

According to the criminal complaint: Bunten was in the woman’s apartment earlier in the evening with two other people. One of the three locked the door behind them as they left the apartment, but said she saw Bunten’s hand grabbing the inside door handle as he shut it. As the three were heading toward the front of the building, Bunten turned back saying he forgot something and they parted company.

The woman who lived in the apartment was in her bed sleeping when she heard the apartment door open. She told Superior Police that the defendant came into her bedroom, yelled at her to shut up, tore off her pants and raped her. She said she yelled “no” to him and bit him many times during the assault.

DNA evidence showed that Bunten was a possible source of DNA collected from the victim, according to the criminal complaint. Out of 20,095 individuals, one sample was found to occur only seven times. The other sample was found to occur 655 times.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Oct. 10.

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