AUGUSTA — City police have charged a Hancock County man with gross sexual assault following an alleged encounter he had with a woman last October.
Authorities have accused the man, 26-year-old Brandon M. Deraps, of Franklin, of sexually assaulting the woman after driving her from a bar in downtown Augusta, where she had been drinking with a friend, back to the motel where she was staying on Western Avenue.
Deraps was arrested Tuesday morning after police interviewed the woman who accused him of assault, along with her friend and several people who were at the motel that night, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Detective Chris Blodgett, of the Augusta Police Department. They also viewed security camera footage taken in the motel’s lobby that night.
Authorities charged Deraps with one count of class A gross sexual assault, a felony punishable by up to 30 years of incarceration and a $50,000 fine.
Deraps declined to speak with police during their investigation, saying that his attorney had advised him against it, Blodgett wrote.
But in a conversation that Deraps reportedly had with the friend of the woman identified as the victim, he denied sexually assaulting her, according to Blodgett.
On Wednesday morning, Deraps made his initial court appearance at the Capital Judicial Center, on a video feed from the Kennebec County jail. He was represented by attorney Matthew Morgan, of McKee Law in Augusta.
Judge Tom Nale set his bail at $5,000 cash with the condition that he have no contact with the woman, who is in her 20s. That bail was recommended by Assistant District Attorney Carie James and agreed to by Morgan. Derap’s next hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. April 10.
The alleged assault was reported to police on the night of Oct. 7, around 11:24 p.m., when a woman called them to her second-floor room at the Super 8 Augusta on Western Avenue.
When they arrived, the woman seemed “hysterical and was crying” and told them she and a friend had gone earlier that night to Shenanigans, a bar on Water Street, Blodgett wrote.
According to the woman’s account, she became sick after consuming several drinks, then accepted a ride back to her motel from Deraps around 10:30 p.m. after her friend said she wanted to stay at the bar.
The woman said that she and her friend didn’t know Deraps before meeting him at the bar that night, along with one of his friends. The woman also alleged that Deraps borrowed her friend’s car when they left the bar around 11 p.m.
Deraps initially drove her to the Augusta Inn on Edison Drive, where he said he had a room, but then took her to her motel, she told police.
The woman accused Deraps of then coming to her room and sexually assaulting over the course of about 20 minutes, despite her telling him to stop, Blodgett wrote.
At one point, the woman told police, she struck Deraps in the head with his cellphone in an attempt “to knock the male unconscious,” Blodgett wrote. Deraps allegedly then “grabbed onto her hair and advised her that if she tried that again he ‘would knock her the (expletive) out.'”
Afterward, the woman went to MaineGeneral Medical Center and had a sexual assault forensic evidence kit completed, police said. She also called her mother that night, according to call logs on her phone.
Police spoke with several guests at the motel, who reported not hearing a disturbance at the time of the alleged assault.
The next day, police watched security camera footage captured at the hotel. There was no footage of Deraps entering the building with the woman. However, the cameras did capture a man matching his description walking downstairs from the second floor around 11:21 p.m., before exiting the building through a side door, Blodgett wrote in the affidavit.
After Augusta officers went to the motel that night, Blodgett re-interviewed the woman at her home several days later. She said she hadn’t had contact with Deraps since the alleged assault and hadn’t learned his identity until her friend found it for her.
Blodgett also spoke with the woman’s friend, who reportedly called Deraps and asked whether he had sexually assaulted the woman. According to the friend, “Brandon stated he did not,” Blodgett wrote.
During Deraps’ initial court appearance this week, the prosecutor, James, said that Deraps had a previous conviction for operating under the influence and threatening display of a weapon.
Staff writer Betty Adams contributed reporting.
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker
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