Woman says “nice guy” sexually assaulted her

St Augustine Police Officer Alina Shirshikova was called to the St George Tavern just after midnight yesterday to investigate the report of a sexual battery of a woman by a man she says she met earlier in the evening inside the downtown bar; according to a report received by Historic City News today.

Police arrived to find the victim sitting on the stairs by the back door that lead to the bar, close to the parking lot; a male friend, known to the victim, was sitting next to her.

“The victim was upset, she was crying, and was extremely intoxicated,” Shirshikova wrote in the incident report. “I had a hard time interviewing her due to her mental and physical state.”

During the course of the investigation, police determined that the victim stayed in the bar after her friends left for the evening. The victim told Officer Shirshikova that she joined her friends for drinks, and, while she was at the tavern, she met a Filipino man, about 5’06” tall, medium complexion, in his mid-thirties, who told her that he was living at Vilano Beach.

The victim stated that she was attracted to the man, and that she consensually engaged in kissing and petting with him; beginning inside the bar and continuing to the parking lot and to inside his vehicle, which she believed was a Toyota 4Runner.

The man, whose name she could not remember, tried to get the victim to ride with him to his house. She refused, and told police that he climbed from the driver’s seat, over the console, on top of her in the front passenger seat of the vehicle. When he attempted to penetrate her, she stated that she tried to stop him. The victim says that she told him “no” and began to cry. According to the report, the man let her go and then left the scene.

The victim told police that her purse was missing and she did not know where she left it.
She believed it was either inside the bar, inside the suspect’s vehicle, or inside her vehicle, which was parked in the same parking lot. The bartender advised that her purse had not been turned in.

The man she says assaulted her was possibly wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans. The victim could not remember the color or tag number of the suspect vehicle. She refused to be evaluated by emergency medical personnel or go to the hospital to collect samples for a rape kit.

A friend of the woman drove her home from the bar while her father watched her two-year-old daughter.