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Gasparilla Rape Case Remains Open

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2008

TAMPA - As the city gears up for Gasparilla, a dispute continues between Tampa police and a woman who said she was raped - then was arrested - during last year's festivities.

Detectives have interviewed a man, who is charged with rape in Pasco County, about the Jan. 27 attack on the woman but ruled him out as a suspect, court papers say.

The woman and her attorney, however, say the investigation has hit a "stone wall" because police think the woman is lying and have treated her "as a criminal," according to court papers.

The Tampa Tribune is not identifying the woman or her family because police are investigating the case as a sex crime.

The rape report made national headlines - and prompted a change in police department policy - after officers arrested the woman hours after the attack. The arrest stemmed from about $4,000 in unpaid restitution from a juvenile case.

Police later apologized and met with the woman to produce a composite sketch of the suspect. The department also changed its policy about when to arrest crime victims wanted for felony property crimes, misdemeanors or traffic offenses.

Since then, police say, the woman has been uncooperative. Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy, however, said last week that the investigation still is active and ongoing.

A lawsuit, filed last year by the woman and her attorney, Virlyn "Vic" Moore III of Venice to obtain evidence police had gathered, remains unresolved.

The parties involved could not reach an agreement during court-ordered mediation last year, court records show.

Moore and the woman's mother did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.

According to police, the woman reported about 3:40 p.m. Jan. 27 that a man had dragged her behind a building and raped her near Howard and Swann avenues about two hours earlier while she walked to her car after the Gasparilla parade.

The woman sued the city in March. In an affidavit, the woman said Detective Melanee Holder accused her of lying about the rape to make the friends who had not walked her to her car that day feel guilty. The detective "asserted that my clothes had no DNA on them," the affidavit states.

At the time, police said Holder did not accuse the woman of fabrication. Rather, it is standard for investigators to speak to victims multiple times, police said.

Police described the attacker as a black man, possibly in his 20s, standing about 5 feet 7 inches to 6 feet tall. He has a medium build, short curly hair and a gap between his front teeth, police said.

According to court papers, the woman suggested a Zephyrhills man, Bobby Lee Black, might be her attacker after hearing about his arrest during an April 2 conversation with friends and reading a news article about it.

Black, 19, remains in Pasco County Jail, charged with another man in two home-invasion robberies and rapes of women older than 60, records show.

The woman said in the affidavit that she called Holder on April 3 with her suspicions, and that Holder said she would look into it.

Police investigated and eliminated Black as "a viable suspect because, among other things, contrary to description ... he has no gap in his front teeth," Assistant City Attorney Kirby Rainsberger wrote in an April 26 letter to Moore.

In reply, Moore wrote that police have excluded Black without giving the woman "an opportunity to view him in person, or even to look at a good photo of him," court papers say.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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