Rapist charged with ‘theft of services’ in prostitute’s rape

A defendant accused of forcing a prostitute at gunpoint to have sex with him and three other men got lucky, so to speak, last week.

Oct. 12, 2007

Adapted from the Philadelphia Daily News

A judge dropped all sex and assault charges at his preliminary hearing.

The judge instead held the defendant on the bizarre charge of armed robbery for “theft of services.”

The judge said she based her decision on the fact that the prostitute consented to have sex with the defendant.

“She consented and she didn't get paid . . . I thought it was a robbery.”

The prostitute, a 20-year-old single mother, agreed to $150 for an hour of oral and vaginal sex last month, according to the assistant district attorney. The arrangements were made through her posting on Craigslist.

She met the 19-year-old defendant at what she thought was his house, but which turned out to be an abandoned property. He asked if she'd have sex with his friend, too, and she agreed for another $100.

The friend showed up without money, the gun was pulled and more men arrived.

When a fifth man arrived and was invited to join, the 19-year-old said, he asked why the girl was crying—and declined. He helped her get dressed so she could leave.

It's true the prostitute negotiated sex with the defendant—but not unprotected gang sex at gunpoint.

“The Legislature has defined sex by force as rape,” said the assistant district attorney, accusing the judge of “rewriting her own laws.”

The assistant district attorney said the judge’s ruling was based, not on the law, but on moral contempt.

“Certainly if a jury wants to make that judgment, they're entitled to. But for a judge to make a judgment on a human being, I've never seen that before.”

A case like this, the judge said, “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”

The defendant was charged in an identical incident involving a 23-year-old woman four days later, the assistant district attorney said.

Neither woman knew the other and both told identical stories. The other men involved in the attack couldn't be identified.

The assistant district attorney was so stunned by the judge’s ruling in the first case that he refused to present the second one.

“I wouldn't demean her that way,” he said of the second victim, calling the proceedings “a farce.”

The judge then threw out the second case for failure to prosecute.

The police detective who investigated the incidents said the victims in the two cases “were in fear for their lives. Since they saw one of the doers really well, it crossed both of their minds that they’d be killed.”

The judge’s decision to drop the sex charges is “frankly, appalling,” he said.

The judge acknowledged that her ruling and remarks would be controversial.

“I know I'm going to get killed on this,” she said. But she said she has to “sleep at night with what I decide.”

And on the night when she ruled in the preliminary hearing of this case?

“I slept well.”

The assistant district attorney said he'll file to reinstate the charges in both cases right away-before a different judge.