Couple charged with raping girl, 17
June 14, 2007
Adapted from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Police have accused a couple of raping a teenage girl after giving her the hallucinogen LSD.
The 34-year-old man and 18-year-old woman raped the 17-year-old last month at the man's apartment, said the police chief.
The man was arrested at the apartment and was being held in the county jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond. He already was in the jail on unrelated charges when the rape charges were filed.
The man and woman are charged with a half-dozen crimes, including rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and unlawful restraint.
The victim told the two that "she had heard what LSD does to people and that she would try it if they looked out for her and made sure nothing happened to her," a police affidavit states.
The man and woman sexually assaulted her after the drug took effect, according to the affidavit.
The victim told police that she waited several weeks before reporting the rape because she was ashamed and did not know what to do, the chief said.
A detective searched the man's apartment and found suspected drugs, drug paraphernalia, and items associated with the rape, the chief said. He declined to elaborate.
The couple is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing before a district judge.
At the beginning of the year, police cited the operators of the apartment complex for maintaining a disorderly location because a disproportionate number of the crimes committed in the borough—one quarter of them—occur at the 180-unit, 10-story federally-subsidized housing complex.
The chief noted that the number of police calls to the building has dropped since the winter, when one-third of all crimes were committed there.
"The owners are being a little more proactive in dealing with the problems," he said. "But there's no question more needs to be done."
|
