UA student charged with rape after weekend sex assault at fraternity house
By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com The Birmingham News
Tuscaloosa, AL
A University of Alabama student is charged in a weekend rape at a fraternity house on campus, police said today.
Police were notified of the attack about 5 a.m. Saturday, said Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Lt. Kip Hart. The victim, a 19-year-old woman, was being treated at DCH Regional Medical Center at the time investigators were notified.
The victim told police she met the suspect – 19-year-old Taylor Force – at a bar and went back to his room at the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house on Jefferson Avenue. Hart said it appears that parts of the encounter were consensual, but Force had sex with the victim after she told him no and tried to push him off of her.
After receiving the initial medical information, processing the scene, reviewing video evidence, and conducting interviews, detectives determined there was probable cause to arrest Force for first-degree rape. He was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail, and released after posting bond, which was set at $30,000.
Hart said the victim is a college student, but not in the Tuscaloosa area.
A school spokesman said Force has been referred to UA's Office of Student Conduct. More information will be released as it becomes available.
Last month, a 20-year-old UA student was charged in the weekend rape of another student. Jacob Norris also was charged with first-degree rape after police say that Norris sexually and physically assaulted the victim in Norris' apartment in the 1100 block of 13th Street East in Tuscaloosa.
Also in October, three University of Alabama students were charged in the gang rape of a Shelton State Community College student. Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit investigators were called to a home in the 5500 block of Old Montgomery Highway on a possible sexual assault. When they arrived, the learned the unresponsive 22-year-old victim had been taken DCH Regional Medical Center. A fourth man, who wasn't a student, was also charged.
Witnesses told lawmen they found the young woman unresponsive in an apartment. They said she was knowingly drinking a beverage which had a controlled substance in it with some friends at the apartment the night before. Hood said the drink was a combination of fruit punch and Xanax.
Those witnesses told investigators the victim passed out in the bedroom of 20-year-old Donald King. They reported that King and three others had sex with the victim while she was unconscious. Hood said three of the suspects were in the room with the victim all at the same time.