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Police: Man Arrested In Molestation Of Disabled Woman

News Channel 8 Photo by PETER MASA

Tandeer Miah, a gas station clerk, helped the victim after she escaped from her abductor.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2009

Updated: 02/13/2009 02:04 pm

TAMPA - A man accused of abducting and molesting a blind, deaf and mute woman from a bus stop on Friday morning remained in jail this afternoon.

Police credited the 40-year-old woman with keeping her cool and using her limited sight to get a description and scribble a note to a service station clerk who called police.

Luis Mendez, 49, 108 Knorwood St., is charged with false imprisonment and lewd and lascivious molestation of a disabled person. He remained in the Orient Road Jail Friday afternoon. Bail was set at $4,000.

The woman, whose name was not released because of the nature of the offenses, was on her way to work this morning and waiting for a bus at Cypress Street and Dale Mabry Highway when she was approached by the man, police said.

"She goes along with him, thinking this is a co-worker giving her a ride to work," said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy. "Then, the sun hits his face, she gets close enough to see this is not her co-worker and she begins to panic and fight him. But he forces her into his vehicle and locks the door."

While the woman is legally blind and uses a cane, McElroy said, she has some vision.

She screamed as the man began to molest her, McElroy said. When the driver pulled into a service station across the street and stopped the car, she jumped out and ran into the store.

There, she scribbled a note saying someone had tried to abduct and rape her.

The clerk called police.

"She had a note, wrote down on paper," said the clerk Tandeer Miah. "When I see the word abducted was on it, I immediately dialed 911.

"She was shaking," he said. "She couldn't talk or nothing. I gave her a chair."

McElroy said the woman kept her wits and that led to the arrest.

"She is very quick-witted, a very smart lady who was able to write everything down on a notepad, giving a description of the suspect, giving a detailed account of what happened to her and was able to stay very calm," McElroy said.

Police arrived and detained the man. Inside the vehicle they found two knives and a large black club that was wrapped in duct tape, McElroy said.

WFLA News Channel 8 reporter Jeff Patterson contributed to ths report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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