El Patron owner charged with raping two women

Additional Kansas City rape news: Arturo Cabral, owner of El Patron Cocina and Bar, on Southwest Boulevard, has been charged with raping two different women.

On November 13, 2015, according to court documents, Cabral “casually unzipped” the blouse of a woman he met at a bar on the Country Club Plaza and asked her if she wanted to get a hotel room. She declined, he ordered her a water, and she woke up nine hours later in a hotel room anyway — completely naked and missing her coat and cell phone. 

This past June, a young woman attended a party at Cabral’s house in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood. The woman’s father is friends with Cabral, and, according to court documents, she spent most of the evening socializing with Cabral’s daughter. She had three drinks, she told police. Later in the evening, she joined Cabral and his girlfriend on the porch, and, soon after, lost much of her memory. She told police she woke up on a couch hours later, and Cabral was on top of her, penetrating her. 

In October 2016, Cabral was questioned by police in the latter incident, after the victim reported it from New York, where she was staying. (She told police she delayed reporting the rape due to her father’s friendship with Cabral.) Cabral refused to provide a statement, according to court documents. 

In December, the police crime lab reported that DNA from the sexual assault victim on the Plaza matched Cabral. On Thursday, Cabral was formally charged with three counts of rape. His bond is set at $500,000. 

According to a 2006 Pitch review of El Patron, Cabral was born in Chicago and owned the Del Rio, a combination restaurant-saloon at 2934 Southwest Boulevard, in 1997, before it closed the following year. In recent years, KCUR has reported, Cabral sought to start a Mexican Restaurant Association chapter in Kansas City.