{"id":23512,"date":"2026-03-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=23512"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:49:13","slug":"moorhead-man-faces-4-felony-sex-crime-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/moorhead-man-faces-4-felony-sex-crime-counts\/","title":{"rendered":"Moorhead Man Faces 4 Felony Sex Crime Counts"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOORHEAD<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Moorhead man is facing four felony criminal sexual conduct charges in Clay County after prosecutors accused him of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman at his apartment last fall.<\/p>\n

Ricardo Mendoza-Bandera<\/strong>, 38, was charged March 12 in Clay County District Court<\/a>. Court records show he faces first, second, third, and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charges.<\/p>\n

\"Ricardo
Ricardo Mendoza-Bandera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the complaint says<\/h2>\n

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged assault happened during the early morning hours of Sept. 19, 2025. The woman had gone to an apartment in Moorhead after a mutual acquaintance picked her up. Court documents say the group drank alcohol that night.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the woman became heavily intoxicated. The complaint says she was later left alone with Mendoza-Bandera in the living room. Court records state she repeatedly told him no and tried to get away.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Mendoza-Bandera sexually assaulted her despite that resistance. The complaint says he penetrated the woman.<\/p>\n

Court documents say the woman left the apartment at about 3:45 a.m. She then called family members for help. Her father called emergency services, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

The woman was taken to a hospital for a sexual assault exam. A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner kit was collected. Court records say the exam also noted a physical injury.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension<\/a> later tested evidence collected during the exam. Prosecutors say lab results matched Mendoza-Bandera\u2019s DNA to samples taken from the woman.<\/p>\n

Investigators later interviewed Mendoza-Bandera, according to the complaint. Court records say he admitted the woman was at his apartment. He denied any sexual contact.<\/p>\n

The most serious charge is first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Minnesota law lists criminal sexual conduct offenses under Chapter 609 of state statutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A separate drug case is also pending<\/h2>\n

Mendoza-Bandera is also due in court on a separate felony drug charge. Authorities say deputies arrested him on March 20 on an outstanding warrant.<\/p>\n

That complaint alleges deputies found about one gram of methamphetamine during a search. He is being held pending further proceedings in both cases. Readers can track public case updates through Minnesota Court Records Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The charges in both cases are allegations. A conviction can happen only after a plea or a verdict in court.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOORHEAD (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Moorhead man is facing four felony criminal sexual conduct charges in Clay County after prosecutors accused him of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman at his apartment last fall. Ricardo Mendoza-Bandera, 38, was charged March 12 in Clay County District Court. Court records show he faces first, second, third, and fourth-degree criminal… Continue reading Moorhead Man Faces 4 Felony Sex Crime Counts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[7412,2960,772,1284,960,961,957,151,955,1346,7573,1835,15561,794,786],"class_list":["post-23512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-clay-county-court","tag-counts","tag-crime","tag-criminal-sexual-conduct","tag-faces","tag-felony","tag-felony-charges","tag-man","tag-minnesota-crime-news","tag-moorhead","tag-moorhead-crime-news","tag-moorhead-mn","tag-ricardo-mendoza-bandera","tag-sex","tag-trf-news","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23657,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512\/revisions\/23657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}