VENTURA : Man Accused of Kidnaping, Rape

A 31-year-old Ventura County man was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping and raping a woman he promised a job as a baby-sitter, authorities said Thursday.

Douglas Ray Kaufman was being held in the Ventura County Jail on $20,000 bail, a jail spokesman said.

The 35-year-old woman, who is a transient, told police that she met a man Monday when she was at the intersection of Yerba Buena Road and the Pacific Coast Highway, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Fitzgerald said.

The man, who pulled over to the side of the road, said he needed a baby-sitter and asked if she needed work, Fitzgerald said. They arranged for him to pick her up the next day, Fitzgerald said.

The man drove the woman to his house on Cotharin Road south of Thousand Oaks about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Fitzgerald said. The woman said the man then bound her hands behind her back and raped her, Fitzgerald said.

The woman said the man later put her back in the car, drove her to a shed about a quarter of a mile away and left her there, Fitzgerald said.

The woman later freed herself and made her way to a restaurant about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. People there called the Sheriff’s Department and she then led deputies to a house where Kaufman was arrested.