Chattanooga man arrested on rape charges after victim goes to jail

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

photo Victor Lebron Hunt

Chattanooga Police say they sent a rape victim to jail before arresting the man she would later accuse.

Victor Lebron Hunt, 50, was charged with rape and robbery on Monday for an incident that allegedly unfolded on Jan. 12. A warrant gives the following account:

Someone who lives in the same trailer park as Hunt called police just before midnight on Jan. 12. The person said a woman in the trailer park asked for help and complained she had been raped. But when an officer talked to the victim, she couldn't complete sentences "apparently due to her high level of intoxication." The officer told the victim to wait and file a report when she was sober.

The victim got angry. She shoved the officer, and the officer handcuffed her. The next morning, inside Hamilton County Corrections, the victim said she felt severe pain. I might have been raped last night, she told officers, so they drove her to Erlanger Hospital.

She received a rape kit, and a nurse found evidence of forced entry, and the victim told officers that a neighbor named "Vick" assaulted her. She said she drove Hunt around the night before, first to a friend's place and then to a liquor store.

When they arrived back at Hunt's home, the victim told him to get out of the car. But he refused. He wanted her to drink with him first. She said the rest of the night only comes back in waves, mostly Hunt trying to strip the victim and her running away in just her bra and pants.

As officers investigated, Hunt called police. He heard from neighbors that someone accused him of assault, and he wanted to give his side. Hunt told Detective Michael Wenger that on Jan. 12 he saw the victim walking around the trailer park without a shirt.

First, Hunt told Wenger he and the victim didn't engage in anything close to sex. Later, Hunt said they in fact did try to have sex, but he failed to perform.

Hunt was arrested for theft in 1992, driving under the influence in 2002 and theft of property worth more than $60,000 in 2005. He is being held at the Hamilton County Jail on a $21,000 bond and will appear in front of Sessions Court Judge Gary Starnes on Feb. 19.