Rape and kidnapping suspect Luis Canseco will not be arraigned until Thursday, after a judge continued the hearing to allow the defendant time to consult with a public defender.

Canseco, 31, an Isla Vista resident, is accused of raping a 20-year-old female Santa Barbara City College student on Oct. 6 after offering her a ride home in his car. The suspect was contacted and arrested Oct. 12, after a week of surveillance by Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Dept. detectives, with bail set at $60,000.

“We’d like to set Oct. 18 to arraign, so he can be assigned to a felony deputy public defender – the preliminary hearing will be scheduled between 10 and 14 court days from [Oct.] 18 instead of 10-14 days from today,” Judge Edward de Caro said in court Tuesday.

Canseco was identified after the victim’s roommates called the Sheriff’s Dept. with Canseco’s license plate number. According to Sheriff’s Dept. Lt. Mike Burridge, the victim wrote down the plate number after the rape, when she was dropped off on the 6700 block of Abrego Road, the same street Canseco lives on.

Deputy district attorney Hilary Dozer, who is prosecuting the case, said the trial could take only 90 days, but will probably go as long as 180 days.

“It’s not usually the trial that takes a long time – what’s time-consuming is taking [the case] to trial … Today, I believe they put the case aside for a few days to assign a public defender,” he said.

Dozer said the arraignment is held to simply verify the charges brought against the defendant – in this case, rape and kidnapping.

“The defendant has a right to a preliminary hearing within 10 [to 14] days of the arraignment, but they can waive that right,” he said. “The preliminary hearing usually takes less than one day – that’s just a probable cause hearing. There’s another court date 15 days after; then they are arraigned again. [A defendant] has a right to trial within 60 days, unless they and their attorney want to stall it out.”

According to Dozer, the bail is not usually reduced in a case like this, unless a judge moves to lower it.

“The bail [set by the police] is held until a judge reduces it,” he said. “The reduction is a judicial function, so they look at if [the defendant] will appear in court and if they pose a risk to the public … but they do have to notify the district attorney’s office before it is reduced.”