UF neurosurgery resident arrested for entering wrong hotel room in search of sexual partner

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Patrick Alexandre DeSouza, 33, was arrested yesterday morning for allegedly entering the wrong hotel room and getting into bed with an occupant of the room while searching for a man he met on a “cruising” app.

At about 4:50 a.m. on July 26, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to a call about a burglary at the Red Roof Inn (3500 SW 42nd Street), and a male victim said he woke up to find DeSouza in his bed and had to push him out of the room.

The officer’s investigation found that DeSouza had connected with a man on the app Sniffies (which describes itself as “a map-based cruising app for the curious”) and went to the Red Roof Inn to meet the man, but the man stopped responding once he arrived. The officer reported that DeSouza did not have a picture of the man he was meeting, but he started looking, anyway, and he walked through the hotel until he found a room with the door ajar, entered the room, and got into the bed.

The victim said he felt someone touch him on the leg and woke up to find a man in his bed; he said he spoke to the man in Spanish, telling him to get out of the room, and eventually had to push him out of the room.

Another occupant of the room had stepped out of the room to go downstairs, leaving the door ajar, and that person saw DeSouza leaving the room. A security guard at the hotel also confronted DeSouza and said DeSouza only told him that he was there to meet someone, but he did not give the security guard a name or room number for that person. DeSouza reportedly left the hotel before the officer arrived.

Officers made contact with DeSouza at his home, and post Miranda, he admitted to entering the hotel room without consent and crawling into the bed with the victim; however, he said that based on the reaction of the victim, he realized the victim was not the person he was supposed to meet, and he realized his error and left the room and the hotel.

DeSouza, who is listed as a neurosurgery resident on UF’s website, has been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and battery. He has no criminal convictions. Judge Meshon Rawls ordered him held without bail on the burglary charge, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.