Sex_assault Suspect Nabbed by Sting
stew...@yahoo.com
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
Oct. 9 - William Graham drove his red Ford Explorer Sport into the area
around Denver's South Gaylord Street, a bar and restaurant hot spot
where sexual assaults had sparked a police sting operation last summer,
a detective explained in court Thursday.
He was under surveillance by police the moment he came on the scene.
"They watched him drive up Mississippi Avenue and park on South York
Street,'' Detective Frank Donlon testified during Graham's preliminary
hearing.
After parking, Graham got out, walked a distance, partially pulled his
pants down and hid next to a van containing undercover officers.
Moments later, as decoy police officer Kara Bilstein walked by, Graham
darted out from the shadows, hit Bilstein full force and drove her to
the ground.
As officers lifted Graham off Bilstein, Graham's pants fell to the
ground, said Donlon.
Graham, suspected of sexually assaulting four women in Denver's South
Gaylord Street bar and restaurant district this summer, was bound over
for trial Thursday.
Denver County Judge Kathleen Bowers ordered the 33year-old to stand
trial on two counts of second-degree assault, one count of second-degree
kidnapping, and two counts of third-degree sexual assault.
"I was seeing stars,'' Bilstein testified.
"Of course I was afraid, as any normal woman would have been.''
Bilstein, who volunteered for the undercover job, received a broken
wrist and bruised shoulder in the Aug. 6 attack.
The three other women attacked in the area last summer also testified
Thursday.
Although none of the them could identify Graham, the physical
description they gave of their assailant matched his. And the women said
the attacker followed the same pattern - firmly placing a hand over
their nose and mouth, slamming them to the ground and then fondling
them. In two of the attacks, the assailant ripped off the women's
underpants.
After a few minutes, the man would run away. At no time did he say
anything to the victims.
In ordering Graham to stand trial, Bowers said it was one of the
"strongest similar transaction cases'' she had ever seen.
The women were all drawn to South Gaylord Street by the food, fun and
entertainment provided by the area's restaurants and bars.
They were attacked around midnight, usually as they walked alone to
their cars.
The attacks - which occurred on June 4, June 18 and July 23 - prompted
the Aug. 6 sting by police.
Bilstein testified that Graham came up behind her, slammed her to the
ground, covered her nose and mouth with one hand, and began fondling her
under her dress.
Within seconds, the nearly dozen undercover officers in the area had
pulled Graham off, cuffed him and led him away.
Afterward, Bilstein said she "crawled away and tried to figure out where
my pain was coming from.''
Donlon testified that since Graham's arrest, the attacks have stopped.
*Stew*
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