Police Investigate Suspect in Two Parkway Rape Allegations

A sharp-eyed police officer last week recognized a man being sought in two complaints of sexual assault in Wauwatosa and took him into custody after consulting with detectives.

But after questioning, he was released because his story, that the incidents involved nothing more than willing participants exchanging sex for favors, left reason to doubt whether any assaults had occurred.

Police say, though, that the allegations are still being investigated and, pending further evidence, they could still seek charges.

The suspect, a 46-year-old Milwaukee man, was found July 25 in the same area and under similar circumstances as described in the earlier allegations – parked with a young woman on Menomonee River Parkway.

According to an incident report, at 1:34 p.m. that day, an officer going to investigate a burglar alarm recognized a vehicle parked in the 3800 block of Menomonee River Parkway as the same as the one described by women who complained that they had been assaulted in the same area in January and in April.

In the vehicle were a middle-aged man and a younger-looking woman. The officer felt he had reason enough to investigate.

The man matched the description of the complainants, right down to his foreign accent. The officer remembered that at least one of the accusers had said her alleged attacker had a knife, so he patted down the suspect but found no weapon.

The young woman with the suspect made no complaint that she felt threatened, and told the officer that she and the man were old family friends who had stopped to chat.

That did not jibe, however, with the suspect's own story that he did not know the woman and had just picked her up 20 to 30 minutes earlier at a bus stop.

An identity check revealed that the woman had given a false name, and the officer told her he would be taking her into custody for obstructing an officer and that she should start telling the truth to avoid further trouble.

With that, she identified herself correctly as a 24-year-old from Milwaukee and admitted she did not know the man. She acknowledged that she had accepted a ride with him a short time before, at a bus stop, and that he had agreed to take her to Mayfair Mall.

The officer recalled that those were exactly the same circumstances reported in the April incident – the complainant said she had accepted a ride to Mayfair but the man had stopped on the parkway nearby and assaulted her.

The officer called the city's Detectives Bureau and was told to take the man into custody on suspicion of forcible rape.

According to a detective's report, the woman said the man had not asked for sex when he picked her up, she had never offered to have sex with him, and she had never intended to do so.

However, she said he had talked about "doing something" sexual and had rubbed her leg.

She also said the suspect had not offered her money but did tell her he would buy her something at the mall. Despite the man's alleged advances, she still said she had not felt threatened and never said that she thought his touching or solicitations were inappropriate. She told the detective she felt foolish for having accepted a ride from a stranger.

With that, the woman was released without being booked, and the investigation turned to the suspect.

The man's vehicle was impounded and thoroughly searched, reports said, yielding no evidence. It was returned to him after his release from custody.

Police have not released written reports on his statements or the reports on the earlier incidents, citing the ongoing investigation. However, officers who asked not to be named said DNA samples had been taken from the suspect and that more evidence is being sought.

Police are left to sort out the he-said, she-said stories between the man and his accusers, and to ponder why, if the women went along with the man as willing participants as he said they did, they would then make very serious accusations of armed sexual assault.

On the other hand, police said, the investigation is confounded by inconsistencies such as the lies told by the woman in the latest incident. Why, if she had only accepted a ride from a stranger, would she make up a false story and identity?