Alex Da Silva, 41, a former salsa dance workshop teacher at Glendale Community College, was arrested for a second time on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 and charged with eight separate counts of assault.

Da Silva was first arrested in April, but the district attorney’s office decided to not press any charges against him. Four months later he is being charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit rape, two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, and four counts of forcible rape. What changed?

Deputy District Attorney Rosa Alarcon revealed that the alleged assaults supposedly took place between August 2002 and March 2009. When he was arrested in April, the four alleged victims were between the ages of 20 and 26, and had all been dancers or aspiring dancers that had met Alex through his dance classes.

A couple of years ago, Da Silva was part of the Glendale Community College high school dance day. Alexandra Blackbird, the head of the dance department at GCC invited Da Silva as a guest teacher. Blackbird says that she never saw him acting inappropriately with her students, or if it happened she never knew anything about it.

Blackbird also went on to say that, “Salsa gets flirty, but never like that,” referring to the accusations made against Da Silva. “If anything, I could see ladies coming on to him, or wanting things from him . but then again I never took private dance lessons from him. I’m just surprised, I don’t see it.”

When the Los Angeles Police Department decided to let Da Silva go, they needed more evidence in order to pursue the case and undertook further investigation.

According to L.A. police detective John Eum, Da Silva has had accusations of sexual assault made against him numerous times, in 2003, 2004, and 2005, by some of the same women but never had any charges filed against him.

Shortly before the arrest in April the fourth woman to accuse Da Silva of luring her into his home and then getting her into his bedroom, came forward. When detectives went back to interview the three previous accusers they found that the women did
not know each other and had similar stories.

Three more allegations have arisen since the April arrest, as well as two more accusers, who were left to decide whether or not to file police reports. Da Silva was put in jail with a bail of $3.8 million. Four months later his bail is nearly doubled at $6.2 million and it’s not clear why it has been set that high. He is still in custody.

Da Silva has pled “not guilty” to all eight counts against him, and he could face life in prison if convicted, revealed the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

The next court date is set to take place today where he will have his preliminary hearing.