Thursday, May 10, 2012

Charges Dropped in case of Tea Party Leader Arrested For Kidnapping and Rape

Update, brought to my attention by a commenter:

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/29/charges-dropped-in-fiesta-island-rape/

Thursday, May 10th 2012

Charges of rape and kidnapping against a Lemon Grove man were dropped Thursday morning after the woman who claimed she was attacked last month on Fiesta Island recanted, prosecutors said.Michael Kobulnicky, 50, was released from custody shortly after a hastily scheduled court appearance.

Kobulnicky, a former San Diego Tea Party spokesman, had told his attorneys that he engaged last month in a consensual sexual encounter with the woman.

On Thursday, he told reporters, “There was no sexual encounter. There was no sexual act.”

He declined to explain the two apparently contradictory statements.

“It’s been hell,” he said. “It’s been devastating to me and to my fiancĂ©e. … Today was a great day. I’m extremely happy, but I’m shook up.”

Kobulnicky, who worked for the San Diego Community College District as a landscape supervisor, spent two weeks in jail and was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

He faced life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

.....

The 56-year-old woman who made the rape claim reported to police that she accepted a ride from a man on Feb. 25 and he drove her to Fiesta Island, where he sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors said physical evidence corroborated her report.

After Kobulnicky’s arrest, the woman claimed that police had the wrong man. She showed up to court Monday at Kobulnicky’s bail review to explain that he was not her attacker. Then, on Wednesday, she told authorities she was never kidnapped or raped by anyone, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Police said Thursday that based on new information obtained during the investigation charges likely won’t be pursued against the woman for filing a false report.

U-T San Diego is not naming her because she has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

The woman said in an interview Thursday that she was relieved the case had been dismissed.

“Now I can get my life back. Now I can move forward,” she said. “I feel like a thousand pounds lifted off me.”

She would not elaborate on what exactly took place on Fiesta Island, only to say she may have still been victimized and that the man should have taken her back home instead of leaving her there.

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www.politicususa.com has been a victim of denial of service attacks recently, so I have supplied a link to another source in case you can't get to the one for Politcususa.

http://www.politicususa.com/tea-party-kidnapping-and-rape/

By: Sarah JonesMarch 17, 2012

Don’t tread on me? It is confirmed today that it was Tea Party leader Michael Kobulnicky who was arrested Thursday in San Diego for the alleged brutal kidnapping and rape of a 56 year old woman.

According to East County Magazine, Michael John Kobulnicky is accused of offering a woman a ride on February 25, but instead of taking her home, he drove to secluded island, pulled the victim out of the vehicle, sexually assaulted her, and left her in the sand. San Diego Police Lt. Andra Brown said, “He dragged her out of the car and sexually assaulted her pretty brutally.”

Kobulnicky, the public relations director for the San Diego Tea Party, is also the former regional director of the Southern California Conservative Party.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Sex-Assault-Suspect-a-Tea-Party-Leader-143054116.html

By Lauren Steussy
| Saturday, Mar 17, 2012 | Updated 12:22 PM PDT

Source: Sex Assault Suspect a Tea Party Leader | NBC San Diego

Police arrested a prominent local political activist in connection to a recent Fiesta Island sex assault on Thursday.

Michael Kobulnicky, the public relations spokesperson for the San Diego Tea Party, was arrested Thursday afternoon in front of his home, according to Lt. Anastasia Smith with the San Diego Police Department.

Kobulnicky is accused of a Feb. 25 abduction and sexual assault of a 56-year-old woman who was walking home near Linda Vista Rd. in Fiesta Island. The woman was pulled into a car and assaulted, then left on the island, police said.

Surveillance footage of the area near the assault gave police evidence to pursue a suspect. They released a picture of the suspect to the public, and many identified the suspect as Kobulnicky.

[...]

..

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

His Facebook page says they got engaged a couple weeks PRIOR to March 12th. According to the police report the brutal rape happened on Saturday Feb.25th sometime between 7:00 and 8:00pm….looking at the time-line Mr. Michael Kobulnicky could have very well went out and violently raped a random women with a foreign object then met his girlfriend at Hotel De Coronado and proposed to her that very night. Fiesta Island where the rape happened and the victim abandoned is only 12 miles from Hotel De Coronado and only 15 miles from his home in Lemon Grove.

Richard Rider said...

Gee -- where's your follow-up post where a few days later the flaky woman "victim" ADAMANTLY declared that this fellow was NOT the one who committed the rape -- and later declared that NO rape had occurred at all. Turns out the "Tea Party rapist" was totally exonerated.

You can be disappointed in his innocense, but how about telling your readers the truth? Silly suggestion, I'm sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0aufHogI5c
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/29/charges-dropped-in-fiesta-island-rape/

Patricia said...

I'll check into this.

Patricia said...

I'll look into this. If you read my blog, you would know that I try to be accurate. Your insulting comment does not show you in a positive light, and doesn't give me confidence in the accuracy of your comment.

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