A former 2002 Pasco police officer of the year and detective has denied charges he sexually assaulted a woman in his Pasco home last November.

Authorities say his DNA was found in the victim's underwear. 50-year-old Richard Aguirre was formally charged in Franklin County Superior court, but denies wrongdoing.

The former detective who resigned from the Pasco police department is also being investigated for his role in the 1986 strangulation of a Spokane woman, Ruby Doss.  That crime had gone cold until during the sexual assault investigation, a sample of Aguirre's DNA produced a match in the CODIS database.

The 27-year veteran of the department reportedly had the woman staying at his house, sharing a bed, but she told authorities she placed a heavy blanket between them as a type of barrier.  She says she awoke to find him kissing and touching her, then he sexually assaulted her.

Again, according to court information, she had difficulty pushing him off of her because of alcohol consumed earlier in the evening. She told him she had to leave and had him driver her to a friends house.

Aguirre and his attorney acknowledge the stay over, but says there was no sexual contact, and they don't know how his DNA ended up on the woman's undergarments.

He is due in court next week on the assault charge,  no charges have yet been filed related to the Spokane case.

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