Previous rape claim delays trial

Woman accused man in New York City of similar allegations

The woman who accused an Uber driver of raping her after a ride home from SunFest in May made another rape allegation in New York City last year, a recent discovery that has jolted the local case.

After news of the earlier rape claim surfaced, Chief Circuit Judge Krista Marx ordered that Gary Kitchings, 58, can be released from Palm Beach County Jail to house arrest under a $250,000 bond covering four felony charges.

Records show he was still jailed on Friday. Until the judge’s order, he was not granted any bond.

Also, Kitchings’ attorney was given the court’s permission to question Kitchings’ accuser for a second time — focusing only on her earlier allegations of being raped at a Manhattan hotel. The judge delayed the trial for five months until March 12 to give the defense time to investigate the NYC case.

Authorities want to keep the focus on the local case. They contend Kitchings, a longtime foster care provider who also drove for the ride-sharing service, became violent while driving the woman home from a concert in West Palm Beach early May 7. They say he forced her to perform sexual acts in his 2016 Nissan Versa before the attack at her residence — and threatened to shoot her and her barking dogs if she tried to resist.

But Kitchings’ defense is that the sex was entirely consensual, acknowledging he was cheating on his wife when it happened at the accuser’s home.

“If anyone was the aggressor, it was her,” Kitchings told a detective about his passenger, records show.

Because of the nature of the allegations, the Sun Sentinel is not naming the woman.

Assistant Public Defender Stephen Arbuzow, who represents Kitchings, wrote in a recent pleading that prosecutors knew about the New York case and failed to disclose it to the defense. Arbuzow explained that he only

learned about the earlier accusation when he asked the woman on Sept. 19 if she had ever been raped before.

She described the alleged New York rape as “an online date gone wrong” but denied she ever worked as a “prostitute, escort, or provided any sort of company for money,” according to Arbuzow.

The attorney specifically wants to explore allegations the woman used a “sugar daddy” dating website called SeekingArrangement.com, and was in a room at the W hotel in Times Square for that purpose before the alleged rape happened there.

In his request for a bond for Kitchings, Arbuzow argued there is no evidence beyond the woman’s complaint that the encounter “was not completely consensual.”

“Both ‘rapes’ involved S&M type sexual contact, both alleged perpetrators are of similar (age,) and both have no corroborating evidence to support (the accuser’s) claims,” Arbuzow wrote.

The State Attorney’s Office, which objected to Kitchings’ bond, says it will not comment on the case outside of court proceedings.

Lawyers for Kitchings and the man charged in the New York case have been in touch, and they are sharing notes on each other’s cases to challenge the woman’s credibility and accounts to police.

The defendant in the New York case is Sanjay Tripathy, 47, a married, Harvard educated, millionaire technology company executive who lives in North Carolina and is free on a $750,000 bond, according to his attorney Frank Rothman.

Tripathy, who is likely to stand trial in January, is accused of locking her in the room at the W hotel, forcing her to perform a sex act, and choking her.

Rothman says his client’s June 2016 encounter with the woman was a consensual hook-up after they met through the sugar daddy website.

After Kitchings’ arrest by Jupiter police, Uber removed him as a driver, and he also lost his job with the Place of Hope foster care organization based in Palm Beach Gardens. He had been living and working during the week as a “house parent” at a foster home facility called KidSanctuary Campus, in suburban West Palm Beach.

Kitchings, whose permanent home is in Brevard County, is charged with two counts of sexual battery with a deadly weapon or physical force, one count of burglary with assault or battery, and false imprisonment.

In a statement to detectives, Kitchings accused the woman of lying, and described the encounter as “fun” and a “Friday night fling.”

After he left the woman’s home, she immediately called 911.

Kitchings said he went back to driving for Uber and picked up his next rider in West Palm Beach for a ride to Wellington.