ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A woman who reported that she was raped in the bathroom of a downtown Roanoke bar over the weekend has since told police she does not want them to investigate.
The investigation has been put on hold "until or unless the woman becomes more cooperative," police said in a news release Wednesday.
On Monday, police said they had received the 23-year-old woman's report that a man pulled her into the men's bathroom of Corned Beef & Co., locked the door and raped her about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
Police became involved in the case about four hours later, after the woman went home, called a rape hot line and then went to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital for treatment. At the hospital, the woman gave a patrol officer a detailed description of the man she said assaulted her.
Later that day, a detective made an appointment to interview the woman at the Police Department. After failing to show up, she called and said she did not want to pursue the matter, police said. But after talking with the detective, she agreed to meet him at her home the following day.
On Sunday, the detective went to the woman's home. A child answered the door and said that her mother did not want to come to the door, police said.
In her earlier report, the woman had said the incident happened as she went to use the women's bathroom. She said a man grabbed her and pulled her into the adjacent men's room, where he pulled off some of her clothing and raped her. The man released her when she screamed, the woman told police.
Al Pollard, co-owner of Corned Beef & Co., said about 200 patrons and a staff of 12 were in the bar at the time. No one reported hearing a scream, he said, and no employee was informed of a problem.
The single-stall bathrooms are next to a serving station that is staffed by an employee, he said, and the area was crowded for much of the night. "The whole night, there were people lined up to use those restrooms," he said.
"It's very hard for me to believe that an incident like that could have occurred without somebody seeing something or hearing something," Pollard said. But, he added: "I'm not going to call anybody a liar. It could have happened just like she said; we just don't know."
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