A 64-year-old Melville, New York man has been arrested and returned to Flagler County to face a sexual battery charge stemming from a case that sat dormant for more than a decade, after new DNA and toxicology testing corroborated a victim's 2015 account that she had been drugged and assaulted. Kaivan Rahbar was taken into custody by Suffolk County police detectives in New York earlier this month on a Flagler County fugitive warrant, and authorities say he was preparing to leave the country when he was arrested.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, the case dates back to July 3, 2015, when deputies responded to a local hospital following a reported sexual battery. The victim told investigators at the time that Rahbar had drugged and sexually assaulted her, but drugging tests conducted then came back inconclusive, and she later became unreachable to detectives. With no way to move the case forward, the sheriff's office eventually marked the file as inactive.
The case might have stayed that way if not for the victim herself. In July 2025, she contacted the sheriff's office and requested a copy of her own case file — a request made possible under Florida's Chapter 119 public records law, which entitles crime victims and members of the public to inspect inactive law enforcement files once active investigative exemptions no longer apply. That inquiry prompted Flagler County detectives to review the original investigation alongside the State Attorney's Office.
New Testing Revives a Decade-Old Blood Sample
As part of that renewed review, detectives submitted the victim's 2015 blood sample for additional forensic testing at NMS Labs, a private national forensic laboratory that specializes in detecting trace concentrations of central nervous system depressants in delayed biological samples. In April 2026, per the sheriff's office, NMS Labs confirmed the presence of Zolpidem — the active ingredient in Ambien — in the victim's blood, and that additional testing supported her original account that she had been drugged.
The finding helps explain why the original 2015 tests may have missed the drug. Zolpidem is a short-acting sedative with a rapid onset of 15 to 30 minutes and a blood elimination half-life of only about 2 to 3 hours, meaning it clears the bloodstream quickly and requires specialized, high-sensitivity testing to detect in delayed samples, according to the American Addiction Centers.
Detectives also matched Rahbar's DNA to DNA collected during the victim's sexual assault examination, per the sheriff's office. Investigators conducted a broader effort that included a controlled phone call and a DNA warrant as part of building the case before a Flagler County detective obtained an arrest warrant for Rahbar on August 3.
Arrest, Extradition, and No-Bond Hold
Suffolk County police detectives arrested Rahbar on the Flagler County warrant on August 4 in New York, according to the sheriff's office, which said he was placed on no-fly status and was preparing to leave the country at the time. Rahbar waived extradition and was returned to Flagler County, where he is now being held without bond, per the sheriff's office.
The years-long gap between the 2015 incident and this month's arrest is allowed under Florida law. Under Florida Statute § 775.15(13), felony sexual battery charges can be filed at any time after the standard statute of limitations has expired if the suspect is identified solely through DNA evidence collected during the original investigation and preserved in testable condition, according to the Sammis Law Firm. Separately, Florida Statute § 794.011 treats sexual battery against a victim who is mentally incapacitated by drugging as legally invalidating consent, elevating the charge to a first-degree felony that carries a maximum penalty of 30 years to life in prison, per the Brancato Law Firm. A conviction would also require mandatory, permanent placement on Florida's public Sex Offender Registry, which publishes an offender's photo and residential address upon release from custody, according to Hanlon Law.
A Cold Case Unit Built for Exactly This
The case is the kind of investigation Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly had in mind when he established the agency's first dedicated Cold Case Unit in October 2020, staffing it with a full-time detective tasked with re-evaluating unsolved homicides, missing-person cases, and sexual assault investigations using advanced forensic technologies, according to the Observer Local News. The unit has a track record to point to: it used genetic genealogy in 2021 to solve the 1997 homicide of Robert Bruce McPhail, and in 2026 it located vehicle evidence and human remains connected to the 2003 disappearance of Mary Lou Combs, per the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
The case also lands amid a much larger backlog facing Florida law enforcement statewide. Florida maintains one of the largest unsolved violent crime backlogs in the nation, with more than 20,000 unsolved homicide and manslaughter cases dating back to 1965, according to Project: Cold Case data reported by WKMG ClickOrlando. Since 2024, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office has fully implemented the Florida Incident-Based Reporting System, which allows deputies to track up to 10 detailed offenses per incident, including sexual battery and drug-related offenses, a shift the agency says helps maintain detailed records in complex, multi-offense cases like this one.
Rahbar's arrest resulted from a DNA match and a toxicology report that gave investigators probable cause for a warrant and a no-fly designation, but the sexual battery allegation against him remains just that — an allegation that must be proven in court. It remains an open question whether defense attorneys will challenge the chain of custody or preservation of the decade-old blood evidence, how the controlled phone call will factor into the case, and when formal charging documents will move through the Flagler County court system.
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