Monday, March 3, 2014

Bristol Twp. rape suspect charged in 2 more attacks

Posted: Thursday, February 6, 2014

A 25-year-old Bristol Township man accused in a New Year’s Day rape has been charged in two earlier rapes after police say an investigation found similarities between the three sexual assaults.
Jon Anthony Schwegler allegedly attacked only women he knew and he was physically and verbally abusive and threatened violence against the women and their families. He also strangled two of the three women, police said.
Police discovered the similarities after he was arrested for the Jan. 1 rape of a female friend while her children slept upstairs in her apartment. He allegedly attacked her and threatened to burn the woman’s apartment down with her and the children inside if she didn’t comply with his sexual demands.
The two had spent New Year’s Eve watching celebrations on TV when Schwegler allegedly started telling the woman he had “feelings” for her and making sexual comments. The woman told Schwegler they were just friends and resisted his advances, which made him more aggressive, police said.
The woman was able to lock Schwegler out of the apartment when he went outside to smoke a cigarette. When he was taken into police custody, he allegedly admitted raping the woman and threatening her and her children.   
Jon Schwegler
The subsequent police investigation, though, revealed that Bristol Township police had twice investigated Schwegler for rape in November 2009 and December 2010. Charges were never filed, and court records do not say why.
After his arrest in the New Year’s Day assault, police interviewed Schwegler again about the prior rape cases. He admitted to the 2010 rape telling a detective that he strangled the woman “hard” while sexually assaulting her, according to a probable cause affidavit.
“The defendant recalled, and told me, ‘he remembers her crying a little bit,’ ” the detective said in the affidavit, adding the Schwegler admitted the woman told him to stop, but he didn’t.
The woman, who reported the rape in 2011, told police she had gone to a friend’s house where eventually she found herself alone with Schwegler. Initially the two started having consensual sex on a living room couch, but then Schwegler smacked the woman hard in the face, according to the affidavit.
He then allegedly strangled her to the point she couldn’t breathe, police said. At one point, the woman claimed she was smacked in the face so hard that she became dizzy.
The woman told Schwegler multiple times to stop but he ignored her, and physically restrained her. While raping her he allegedly called her obscene names, police said. Afterward, the two fell asleep on the couch, but when the woman woke up she alleged that Schwegler again started strangling her to the point she couldn’t breathe.
She demanded a ride home and a friend of the apartment owner drove her home, court records state.
In the interview, Schwegler also recalled the 2009 incident, which occurred in his parents’ basement, where his bedroom was located. Schwegler told the detective he knew the woman didn’t want to have sex with him because of her “body language,” court documents said.
“She was probably scared because I was being a little rough with her,” he also told police.
The woman told police that she met Schwegler a few days earlier and was hanging out with him “partying” when he invited her to his home. She was sitting on his bed, when Schwegler got on top of her and started forcefully removing her clothing, court documents said.
The woman said she resisted his advances but he refused to stop; while raping her she said he slammed her head against a wall and called her obscene names, police said. He also allegedly threatened to cut her throat, and her mother’s throat, if she tried to escape.
He also allegedly kept his hands around her throat for most of the attack. Afterward, he took a golf club from underneath the bed and slept with it on top of her, police said. In the morning he raped her again and then let her go, police said.
Schwegler is charged with three counts of forcible rape, indecent sexual assault, sexual assault and related charges. He was arraigned Thursday before Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline and sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $100,000.

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