By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, February 23, 2012
CLEARWATER — Authorities arrested a man they say raped a disabled woman at an assisted living facility last summer.
Bernard Kenneth Brown, 27, of St. Petersburg, was arrested Thursday morning on a charge of sexual battery.
Brown is accused of raping the woman, who is in her mid-30s, overnight last July. The attack sent the woman, a mentally disabled resident at an unidentified Clearwater facility, to the hospital.
Brown was a fellow resident, said Cecilia Barreda, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The woman told deputies that on that night, Brown used a butter knife to break into her room, which was locked.
He then proposed a sexual encounter, officials said.
"She basically said she told him no, and to stop," Barreda said.
Brown remained in the Pinellas County Jail on Thursday in lieu of $100,000 bail.