Man cleared in rape cases faces new charges
August 3, 2007
Adapted from the New Castle News
A man absolved of previous rape charges has been arrested for allegedly threatening a woman.
Police charged a 36-year-old man with terroristic threats, stalking, recklessly endangering, disorderly conduct and two counts of harassment.
He is accused of following a woman he does not know as she was walking along the highway, then threatening to have sex with her and kill her.
According to a patrolman, the woman said she had been dropped off and was walking to a motel.
The patrolman reported he came upon the 29-year-old woman standing on a road around 2 a.m., yelling and screaming and waving her arms.
She told him that she had seen a man, later identified as the 36-year-old, walking behind her on the opposite side of the highway, and she became scared and walked faster. He disappeared, but as she neared the underpass, she heard something in the woods and he ran out at her.
In paperwork filed by police, they allege the man yelled threats at her and she ran across the highway. As she ran, he yelled, “You better hope you are faster than me,” she said.
As he got close to her, she threw a bag at him, then reached into another bag and pulled out a garment, telling him she had a gun, she said. The man then ran back into the woods.
Police arrived then and found a sedan parked on the side of the bypass ramp.
As officers searched the nearby woods, the car left. Police checked the license plate and determined it is registered to the man and his wife.
The man told state troopers who had gone to his home that he had just returned from work and had not chased the woman.
Police took the woman to the man’s house, she identified him as the one who had chased her and he was arrested.
He told police he had seen the woman walking, thought she was a prostitute and was going to offer to pay her for services.
He said he pulled up in his car and asked her if she needed a ride, but she called him a pervert and refused, according to police.
He told them he became upset with the woman and decided scare her. He said he got out of his car, waited for her to walk toward him, and jumped out of the weeds at her. He said he was laughing and told her he was Jesus.
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