(USA) A petite, disabled Army veteran and single mother stoically
told a judge how a man she met through an online dating site brutally
beat, choked, raped and sodomized her after she invited him into her
home.
She was testifying during a bond hearing for Corderell St.
George, who’s charged with rape and false imprisonment in the Feb. 5
incident. He has been held without bond in the Muscogee County Jail
since his arrest Feb. 28, and defense attorney William Kendrick tried to
persuade Superior Court Judge William Rumer to set a bond so St. George
could be released.
After hearing from the victim, Rumer declined.
The
victim testified that after the assault, she helped police track St.
George down by posting a fake profile to the online dating site “Plenty
of Fish,” through which she first met him. She said he had deleted his
old profile on that site and posted a new one, but had not changed his
photograph.
Using the fake profile she’d created, she made contact
with him, and not realizing who she was, he started making the same
pitch he’d made to meet her before, she said.
Prosecutor LaRae
Moore cited that testimony in arguing St. George would remain a danger
to others were he released from jail. Having attacked the woman in her
home, where she still lives, he presents a danger to her as well, Moore
said.
The woman described what began as a pleasant meeting. St.
George did not drive, and first invited her to his house, saying he had a
roommate. His roommate turned out to be his girlfriend, who also
testified Thursday, saying he'd been living with her since she met him
in November 2013.
The victim said she hadn’t felt comfortable
meeting St. George at his home, so as he walked toward her house Feb. 5,
she met him halfway and gave him a ride there.
Around 11 a.m.,
while her teenage son was at school, she and St. George sat at her
dining room table, played cards and had a few drinks. He seemed “mild
mannered” and “quiet,” she said.
That changed abruptly: “From out of the blue, he hit me,” she said.
Screaming,
she ran for her front door and unbolted one of its locks before he
dragged her back, saying “Shut up, b---h,” she said. He ordered her to
give him oral sex, she said. When she fought back, biting his hand and
reaching for a bottle to hit him with, he beat and choked her, she said.
He
choked her so hard she began to vomit, both on the pillow on her bed
and the couch in her living room, she testified. He pulled a weave from
her hair, and their violent struggle destroyed her flat-screen TV and an
end table, she said.
Finally she persuaded him she had to use the
bathroom, and as soon as she was free, she ran naked out the door to
tell her neighbors, who went back in with her to confront him, she said.
They found her home vacant and her back door standing open.
Clear
to anyone in the courtroom was the disparity between the size of the
victim and the suspect. She testified she was 5-foot-1 and weighed 135
pounds. Moore said St. George is 6-foot-6. He reportedly weighed 220
pounds when arrested.
Testifying on St. George’s behalf was a
grandmother who said he’d lived with her most of his life, before moving
in with the girlfriend. “I’ve never seen a violent side,” she said.
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