Man Acquitted Of Rape: "I Never Raped Her"

Timothy West

This week, Timothy West was acquitted of all charges related to the rape of a 21-year-old Applebee's waitress in Ozone Park. And then he was shipped right back to prison, where he is serving out a seven-year prison term for an attempted burglary in another case. The Daily News was able to get a jailhouse interview with him and ask about the attempted rape charges: "I never raped her and the jury saw that. I don't know why she'd say that, but it's not true. I have sisters. My mother raised me. I would never disrespect a woman like that. It's just wrong."

According to his accuser, West broke into the waitress's house, raped her twice by knife-point, and then asked for her phone number for a later date. But West says it was consensual: "She let me in her house, we drank, then had sex. Then we drank more and had sex again. She wanted to. Does that sound like rape? Then she went crazy and wanted to testify against me and all that. I had no idea why. She definitely set me up. I still don't get it." West texted the waitress hours after the encounter asking her to call him. In the ensuing conversation, she asked him "You just broke into my house, yo. I've never seen you before...You try to rob me, then you rape me. Why you did that to me?" He apologized, and the whole conversation was recorded by police.

But West alleges that he wasn't apologizing for the rape: "I apologized because I was on parole for a while, and I got confused by the whole situation. It's just crazy. I didn't know what she was talking about." West had just been paroled from a five-year prison stint for a 2005 Queens robbery when he was arrested for the rape.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in News on October 30, 2010 1:22 PM

Comments [rss]

JacqueMehoff

Sometimes being stupid and polite works to your advantage.

whatstheproblem

he looks a lot like the suspect in the Riverside attack last summer. Maybe they should ask him where he was on the 5th of July.

http://gothamist.com/2010/07/09/woman_attacked_in_riverside_park_sa.php

just saying

You hear a lot these days about innocent people who are unjustly jailed, but not so much about the guilty scumbags who escape justice because of dimwit jurors, inept prosecution, and/or slick defense attorneys.

The jurors who were interviewed made a big deal over the fact there was no forced entry and that victim didn't fight off her attacker. However, the victim's own mother testified that a kitchen window had been inadvertently left open. The victim herself stated that he held her at knifepoint and that she also had been afraid for family members sleeping nearby.

West previously served five years for armed robbery and is currently even serving time for burglary in another case--and who knows what else is on his rap sheet. I'll bet this wasn't the first time this slimeball sexually attacked a woman and most likely it won't be the last time.

jaycjay

Unfortunately the only source I've read that quotes jurors is the Post, and I don't trust them to present an accurate depiction or complete picture. The trial went on for more than a week with daily testimony, so there must have been a lot more testimony and evidence presented than we're reading about in the tabloid papers.

So in other words, I have no idea whether he's guilty or not.

henryhamilton

I'll defer to the jury. Hardly innocent, but not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in this particular case.

henryhamilton

Whats up with the holding of comments?

jaycjay

Certain words will result in a comment being held for moderation. That's a feature of the MovableType software that Gothamist uses, and it appears that they just use the default list of such words. It also seems that they rarely actually do have anyone look at the comments "held for moderation," though I did have one of mine show up after I'd edited and reposted the comment.

In short, when that happens with one of your comment submissions you have to figure out what the offending word was and self-censor as handsomedevil did above, and resubmit.

nicemarmot

Specifically, it's the "r word." It's the reason I don't bother to post comments on posts about the "r word" anymore. Why bother when they're just going to get held for the terrible crime of talking about what the article is about.

henryhamilton

Thanks.

Mordicai

Ugh, I would like to think that justice was done; I don't want to see anyone wrongly convicted & here outside of the courtroom we can't see everything. I just see so many miscarriages of justice when it comes to sexual assault that I find it hard to believe, you know? Jaded.

handsomedevil

The phone number and taped conversation work more for the guy than the girl, since he is acting as if the encounter was consensual. Three possibilities

1) Guy is a nut and did r@pe her, doesn't realize it.

2) Guy is extremely devious and is pretending it was consensual.

3) Guy is innocent and the girl is nuts.