Alleged Tamarac "Romeo Rapist" Case Goes To Trial
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - The trial is underway for a man investigators dubbed the 'Romeo rapist.'
Andre Beadle is accused of luring women to his Tamarac apartment and sexually assaulting them.
Beadle was working as a security guard at a Ft. Lauderdale Publix supermarket when he asked one of the women out on a date back in July of 2011.
She said when she went to his apartment, he attacked her.
"He bit me on the neck and bit me on the arms," she tearfully told jurors Wednesday.
The woman reported the attack to her mother who also testified Wednesday.
"When she came home she was crying. She told me he pushed her down on the bed and when she tried to escape through a door he forced her back down on the bed again," said Clover Scott.
The woman reported the assault to Broward Sheriff detectives.
After she identified Beadle in a lineup they secretly tape recorded a series of phone conversation between the two.
The phone calls were played for the jury on Wednesday.
In the call the alleged victim is heard asking Beadle, "what did you do? You forced yourself on me, Andre. Are you gonna apologize?"
Beadle responded, "for what?"
In the following days, the woman says Beadle phoned her and threatened her with a gun. That's when she got a restraining order. She says Beadle often talked about using guns while he served in the military.
'I was afraid he would come back and hurt me and my family," she said.
But Beadle says there is no proof of the attack.
His lawyer Lee Friedland questioned the alleged victim's credibility noting that she hired a lawyer who may pursue a lawsuit against Publix and Wackenhut the security firm Beadle was working for.
"You are aware that a not guilty verdict may affect your ability to recover money from Wackenhut or Publix. "Yes" the woman replied.
But prosecutors say it doesn't end here.
They say four other women came forward to report that Beadle raped them.
Prosecutors want the jury to hear testimony from two other accusers. But the judge has to make a ruling on whether it's admissible.
On Wednesday afternoon one of the other alleged victims testified without the jury present. She said she met Beadle and he offered to cook dinner for her. When she went to his apartment she says she noticed there was no furniture in the living room.
She and her three year old daughter were forced to eat their meal in Beadle's bedroom on his bed. That's when the woman says Beadle started to attack her and threatened to snap her neck.
The woman says she begged him to stop because her three year old daughter was in the room. But she says Beadle ignored her pleas.
The judge is expected to make a ruling on whether to allow the testimony from the other accusers on Thursday.
If convicted of battery and sexual battery in his first trial, Beadle faces a maximum sixteen years in prison.
