<span style='font-size:13pt;line-height:100%'>Police Investigate 'Heinous' Rape Case</span>
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB7F4WF9OE.html
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI and VALERIE KALFRINand SAMARA SODOS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 10, 2006
TAMPA - Three men and a woman have been charged with drugging and raping a Sarasota woman over a period of 20 hours at a Tampa house last month.
Authorities also are investigating whether other attackers and victims may have been involved on other occasions.
Tampa police and the Drug Enforcement Administration are still trying to find out what happened May 13 inside the aging white bungalow at 2919 N. 16th St. The victim's account, described in court papers, is disjointed.
"This is one of the most heinous crimes we've dealt with in quite some time," Tampa police Maj. George McNamara said Friday.
"I want to know if there are more victims," McNamara said. "I want people to know we're aware of this house. … I'm also interested in other parts of town where these people congregate."
Jorge F. Martinez Jr., 38, Todd David Spicer, 29, Charles R. Hutchinson, 39, and Rachel Watson Cook, 30, all of Tampa, each are charged with felony sexual battery and kidnapping, along with drug offenses. All were in custody Friday at Hillsborough County jails.
Police arrested Martinez on May 26 after searching the house, which is listed in jail records as his home address. Court papers say investigators seized evidence of cocaine, marijuana and various pills, as well as seven cameras and four computers.
McNamara said the sensitivity of the investigation prevented police from releasing more information about the alleged attack sooner.
"There's still a whole lot of work being done from the detective level," he said.
Police also are investigating whether the attack was videotaped.
People living near the house, built in 1927, welcomed the police action, McNamara said.
"When you do a search warrant the way we did a few weeks ago, and the neighbors come out and say thank you, that speaks volumes," he said.
In a search warrant affidavit filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, the Sarasota woman was quoted as telling police she was repeatedly raped between 2 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. on May 13 until she was able to leave with a friend.
The document says she remembered being raped by as many as 10 men and women, with up to eight people paying Martinez so they could have sex with her. She also said she remembered being pierced in her genitals, according to the document.
An examination at Sarasota Memorial Hospital revealed the woman had amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana in her system, according to Martinez's arrest affidavit.
McNamara said detectives were investigating how the woman was drugged. He is awaiting the results of toxicology and other forensic tests from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
McNamara said the woman, who is in her 20s, met Spicer at Livestock, a two-day rock festival in Zephyrhills in April.
According to the search warrant affidavit, this is the woman's account of what happened next:
The woman and Spicer spoke on the phone and agreed to meet at the Amphitheater, an Ybor City nightclub. There, she drank six beers, three of which Spicer bought and gave to her, the woman said. Feeling "more than drunk," she asked Spicer to follow her in his car to the interstate so she could go home.
Spicer asked her to go to the house on North 16th Street, saying he needed to check on friends. He told her he didn't think it was safe for her to wait alone in the car and invited her inside, where he gave her a beer.
About 30 minutes later, the woman told police, she couldn't use her hands. She described repeatedly being given gum that dissolved in her mouth and having liquid rubbed on her neck between being raped and sodomized.
She also recalled seeing several television monitors that displayed other rooms in the house. Some of the monitors showed pornography, she said in the affidavit. At one point, the affidavit says, she said she heard Martinez telling people she was so messed up "she don't even know she's watching herself on video."
Martinez was being held Friday at Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $302,000. He also is charged with felony trafficking in the drugs Vicodin and Ecstasy, felony possession of marijuana and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Public records show he was convicted in 2005 of felony possession of cocaine, felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The charges were related to an undercover drug sting a year earlier at an East Sixth Avenue house advertised as the "Ybor City Party House" for rent by the hour.
Even before the alleged gang rape, police were investigating whether Martinez was selling drugs from the 16th Street house, according to the affidavit. The document describes police employing a confidential source to purchase drugs there in April.
Hutchinson, who was arrested May 26, was being held Friday at Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $51,000. Cook, who was arrested May 30, and Spicer, who was arrested May 31, were each held without bail Friday at Falkenburg Road Jail.
Police also charged Martinez and a St. Petersburg woman, Angel Marie Andrew, 32, whose name also appears as Andrews in public records, with felony false imprisonment. This charge involves the two not allowing another woman to leave the 16th Street house on May 21 when she threatened to call police, arrest affidavits state.
McNamara said that woman was not raped.
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB7F4WF9OE.html
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI and VALERIE KALFRINand SAMARA SODOS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 10, 2006
TAMPA - Three men and a woman have been charged with drugging and raping a Sarasota woman over a period of 20 hours at a Tampa house last month.
Authorities also are investigating whether other attackers and victims may have been involved on other occasions.
Tampa police and the Drug Enforcement Administration are still trying to find out what happened May 13 inside the aging white bungalow at 2919 N. 16th St. The victim's account, described in court papers, is disjointed.
"This is one of the most heinous crimes we've dealt with in quite some time," Tampa police Maj. George McNamara said Friday.
"I want to know if there are more victims," McNamara said. "I want people to know we're aware of this house. … I'm also interested in other parts of town where these people congregate."
Jorge F. Martinez Jr., 38, Todd David Spicer, 29, Charles R. Hutchinson, 39, and Rachel Watson Cook, 30, all of Tampa, each are charged with felony sexual battery and kidnapping, along with drug offenses. All were in custody Friday at Hillsborough County jails.
Police arrested Martinez on May 26 after searching the house, which is listed in jail records as his home address. Court papers say investigators seized evidence of cocaine, marijuana and various pills, as well as seven cameras and four computers.
McNamara said the sensitivity of the investigation prevented police from releasing more information about the alleged attack sooner.
"There's still a whole lot of work being done from the detective level," he said.
Police also are investigating whether the attack was videotaped.
People living near the house, built in 1927, welcomed the police action, McNamara said.
"When you do a search warrant the way we did a few weeks ago, and the neighbors come out and say thank you, that speaks volumes," he said.
In a search warrant affidavit filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, the Sarasota woman was quoted as telling police she was repeatedly raped between 2 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. on May 13 until she was able to leave with a friend.
The document says she remembered being raped by as many as 10 men and women, with up to eight people paying Martinez so they could have sex with her. She also said she remembered being pierced in her genitals, according to the document.
An examination at Sarasota Memorial Hospital revealed the woman had amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana in her system, according to Martinez's arrest affidavit.
McNamara said detectives were investigating how the woman was drugged. He is awaiting the results of toxicology and other forensic tests from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
McNamara said the woman, who is in her 20s, met Spicer at Livestock, a two-day rock festival in Zephyrhills in April.
According to the search warrant affidavit, this is the woman's account of what happened next:
The woman and Spicer spoke on the phone and agreed to meet at the Amphitheater, an Ybor City nightclub. There, she drank six beers, three of which Spicer bought and gave to her, the woman said. Feeling "more than drunk," she asked Spicer to follow her in his car to the interstate so she could go home.
Spicer asked her to go to the house on North 16th Street, saying he needed to check on friends. He told her he didn't think it was safe for her to wait alone in the car and invited her inside, where he gave her a beer.
About 30 minutes later, the woman told police, she couldn't use her hands. She described repeatedly being given gum that dissolved in her mouth and having liquid rubbed on her neck between being raped and sodomized.
She also recalled seeing several television monitors that displayed other rooms in the house. Some of the monitors showed pornography, she said in the affidavit. At one point, the affidavit says, she said she heard Martinez telling people she was so messed up "she don't even know she's watching herself on video."
Martinez was being held Friday at Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $302,000. He also is charged with felony trafficking in the drugs Vicodin and Ecstasy, felony possession of marijuana and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Public records show he was convicted in 2005 of felony possession of cocaine, felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The charges were related to an undercover drug sting a year earlier at an East Sixth Avenue house advertised as the "Ybor City Party House" for rent by the hour.
Even before the alleged gang rape, police were investigating whether Martinez was selling drugs from the 16th Street house, according to the affidavit. The document describes police employing a confidential source to purchase drugs there in April.
Hutchinson, who was arrested May 26, was being held Friday at Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $51,000. Cook, who was arrested May 30, and Spicer, who was arrested May 31, were each held without bail Friday at Falkenburg Road Jail.
Police also charged Martinez and a St. Petersburg woman, Angel Marie Andrew, 32, whose name also appears as Andrews in public records, with felony false imprisonment. This charge involves the two not allowing another woman to leave the 16th Street house on May 21 when she threatened to call police, arrest affidavits state.
McNamara said that woman was not raped.
