CAMARILLO : Goleta Man Charged in Robberies, Rapes

Ventura County prosecutors charged a Goleta man Tuesday with 18 felonies in connection with two separate robberies, including an Aug. 29 holdup at a Camarillo yogurt shop in which two teen-agers were raped and terrorized.

“These girls were violated,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox, who filed the charges against 21-year-old Christopher Bass. “They were scared out of their wits. It was a pretty horrendous crime.”

A Municipal Court arraignment for Bass, who could receive up to 85 years in prison if convicted of all the charges, was continued until Oct. 4 to allow his attorneys time to review police reports in the case against him.

A burly man, Bass held his head down during his brief courtroom appearance. Municipal Judge Herbert Curtis III ordered bail set at $250,000.

Prosecutors say Bass sexually assaulted the 17- and 19-year-old victims at gunpoint during the robbery of a yogurt shop on Carmen Drive in Camarillo. After taking cash from the register, the masked gunman forced the two store employees into a back room, where he sexually assaulted them.

Bass was arrested about 7:15 p.m. Friday as he was leaving work at Just Bagels in Agoura Hills. One of the victims identified a picture of Bass, authorities said.

Bass is also accused of robbing an Agoura Hills Domino’s Pizza on June 25.

He is charged with five counts of robbery, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of rape, two counts of penetration with a foreign object, two counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of making terrorist threats, two counts of sexual battery and one count of burglary.

Deputy Public Defender Joseph Villasana, who represented Bass during Monday’s hearing, said he had not read the police reports in the case and declined comment.