Woman: Relative tried to hide assault

July 26, 2007

Adapted from Wilkes-Barre Times Leader

A woman who claimed she was raped last summer said her grandmother wanted to keep the alleged assault private to avoid embarrassing the family.

The grandmother confirmed her granddaughter’s account during a preliminary hearing for the accused, 43.

The man was arrested in connection with the rape of a 21-year-old woman known to him. He was charged with a single count of sexual assault and two counts each of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Prosecutors said the man raped the woman, now 22, twice inside his home last year. The man is a former area police officer and is employed as a custodian by the area school district.

The woman said she arrived in the area with her grandparents for a family reunion, and planned to stay at her aunt’s residence. She went out with a family member and met the man at a bar.

The man took the woman to meet her family at a restaurant and later took her to other bars. She admitted upon questioning by the man’s attorney that she had been drinking alcohol in moderation throughout the day.

“(He) pulled out pills from his pocket and said, ‘I’m going to have a good time tonight,’” the woman testified.

After seeing the pills and drinking a beer he had given her, the woman claimed she passed out inside a bar. In her testimony, she said she remembered waking up in his bed as he was having sex with her. She passed out again only to wake up with him performing a lewd sex act on her, she testified.

The woman said she sat up in the bed only to be “pinned” down by him.

She escaped when he fell asleep on a couch. She called her grandmother for a ride home, telling her that she had been raped.

The county assistant district attorney asked her why she didn’t call police or go to a hospital.

“My grandmother said until she is dead, she didn’t want anyone to know about it,” the woman testified.

“I told her, (woman’s name), ‘I want you to go to the grave with this information,” the grandmother testified. “For the love of the family, the whole family will rip up. I said please, (name), don’t say anything.”

The grandmother said she forced the woman to go to the family reunion, fearing if she didn’t go, relatives would become suspicious. The man was at the family reunion and didn’t interact with the woman, the grandmother said.