Registered sex offender accused of rape is headed to grand jury
A 55-year-old man charged with rape for the fifth time is heading to a grand jury after his alleged victim returned to court Wednesday to finish telling a prosecutor what happened on Aug. 3 in an abandoned house on Gillespie Street.
The woman, who will not be identified by the Times Free Press, started to tell prosecutor Jason Demastus earlier this month how a stranger crept up behind her, jammed a knife against her back, and held her hostage for nine hours, raping her numerous times before the next morning. She identified the man as Willie Bradley, whose
criminal history spans nearly two decades and includes previous assault and rape charges.
Minutes into his preliminary hearing, though, Bradley’s public defender realized the woman had given a false name to police. When defender Blake Murchison asked her about it, the woman said she was terrified of Bradley and medicated for schizophrenia. Murchison told Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Christie Sell his office had represented the woman before, that he had a conflict of interest and could no longer work the case. Private attorney Zak Newman was appointed.
On Wednesday, Newman sought further details about the woman’s story. He asked why she waited several days to report the crime and how she identified Bradley in the first place.
The woman said she’d purchased cigarettes from a local market that night. Bradley, a man she’d never seen before, was inside the store, too, and followed her out, she said. Once inside the vacant home, she noted several features through the darkness, including a distorted eye and a black GPS monitor on his ankle.
She later described the man to her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. And the boyfriend, the woman said, left for a bit, came back, and named a man he said was well known for raping women and getting away with it.
“[The boyfriend] pulled up the Facebook page,” the woman said, “and I was like, ‘That was him, right there.’”
“So whenever you were shown the six photographs by the officer, you were already seeing the face on Facebook?” Newman asked.
“I saw the face before Facebook,” the woman said.
Newman continued: “Did you and your nephew at any time go to Bradley’s house asking for money?”
“No,” the woman said. “That’s a lie.”
Demastus, the prosecutor, also called Andrew Peker, of the Chattanooga Police Department, who said a different law enforcement official called him because of his previous experience on sexual assault cases.
When he heard the details of this one — forced entry into a home, repeated rape, being held hostage until the morning — Peker said it reminded him of another incident with Bradley.
During an interview with police, Peker said, Bradley admitted to being in the home but insisted the sex was consensual.
“They were consensually at this house together smoking crack cocaine?” Newman asked the officer.
That’s what [Bradley] told us,” Peker replied.
“He lied,” the witness said from the corner.
At the end of the hearing, Newman argued to dismiss the case because the woman had given a different name to police. But Judge Sell said there was probable cause to send it to a grand jury.
Bradley returned to custody and the woman was transferred back to Silverdale Correctional Facility, where she is being held on unrelated charges.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.