KINGSHILL — A police affidavit detailing a rape case on St. Croix includes shocking details about the alleged sexual assault, but the suspect’s defense attorney said Saturday that the case is not as clear-cut as it seems.
Timothy A. Morgan, 24, of South Carolina, was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual contact, unauthorized possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.
Morgan was held in jail on $100,000 bond, and appeared in court via video conference for his advice-of-rights hearing Saturday morning.
According to a sworn affidavit filed by Virgin Islands police, officers responded to a report of a possible rape victim at Juan F. Luis Hospital at about 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
The victim told investigators that she and her boyfriend had dinner in Christiansted on Tuesday evening, and Morgan called her cellphone as they were leaving and asked to meet up. The couple said they met Morgan at the Chocolate Bar and Restaurant in La Grande Princesse, and Morgan followed them back to their home to continue partying.
Morgan had brought a bottle of alcohol and they all began taking shots, and the victim told police she “took one shot and did not recall what occurred after that,” according to the affidavit.
The boyfriend said he put his girlfriend to bed after she fell asleep on the couch. Morgan asked him to go to a “smoke spot,” so they drove away from the apartment to an area where Morgan asked the boyfriend to get out and check the tire pressure, according to the affidavit. The boyfriend told investigators that when he got out of the vehicle, “Morgan drove off,” and left him to walk back home without shoes.
The victim told police that she woke up in her apartment naked, and Morgan was “on top of her” raping her, and she pushed him off and told him to stop, according to the affidavit. The victim said Morgan did not use a condom, and she told police she was intoxicated but did not give Morgan consent.
As the victim got dressed, she “saw a black handgun with an extended nozzle” on her dresser, and while Morgan did not threaten her with the weapon, she was afraid of what he might do, according to the affidavit. The victim said she walked outside and found her boyfriend who had just arrived, and began to curse Morgan for driving off.
The victim said she tried to calm her boyfriend because she knew Morgan “had the gun and did not want the situation to escalate any further,” and her landlord came out and told Morgan to leave and asked her boyfriend to go inside, according to the affidavit.
When Morgan was gone, the victim said she told her boyfriend about the rape and the handgun, and the boyfriend called 911 and they went to Luis Hospital.
Police made contact with Morgan at around 11 a.m. Wednesday at an apartment where he was inside, alone. Officers said Morgan denied that he had a license to carry a firearm or owned one.
Police “discovered a black handgun on the bathroom vanity,” according to the affidavit.
In an interview with investigators, Morgan said the sex was consensual, according to police. Morgan also “denied being in possession of a firearm.”
Police confirmed Morgan does not have a firearm license, and identified the gun as a black Ruger 22LR with nine cartridges in the magazine.
At his advice-of-rights hearing Saturday, Magistrate Judge Miguel Camacho found probable cause for the charges against Morgan. His defense attorney, Eszart Wynter, asked the judge to hold a bail hearing Tuesday, at which time he will argue for his client’s release.
Wynter told Camacho that he’s working with Morgan’s father, who lives in South Carolina, to obtain at least $10,000 cash to post 10 percent of the $100,000 bond, and said Morgan would live with a third-party custodian pending trial if he’s freed from jail.
“This is a very interesting case, it’s not as simple as it looks, your Honor,” Wynter said.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/Virgin Islands Daily News
https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/what-you-might-not-know-about-getting-roofied.html