Madison police believe they have caught the man who sexually assaulted two University of Wisconsin students on or near campus late last semester.
Antonio Pope, a 31-year-old Dane County resident, was arrested Dec. 15 on two charges of kidnapping and two charges of first-degree sexual assault with use of a deadly weapon. He confessed to the crimes after police confronted him with DNA evidence taken from one of the victims.
Pope is currently being held at the Dane County Jail on $240,000 bail. If convicted of all charges, Pope faces more than 220 years in prison.
“For so many students that were affected by these tragedies, it goes without saying that it’s an absolutely tremendous burden lifted for so many of us to know that these cases were solved by the cops,” said Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer, the prosecutor in Pope’s initial court appearance.
According to court documents, Pope confessed to abducting and sexually assaulting a UW student Nov. 29 as she was walking home on the 1500 block of Observatory Drive.
Pope also confessed to the Dec. 9 abduction and sexual assault of another UW student on the 500 block of North Carroll Street. The second student had been talking on her cell phone as she was walking home when Pope ambushed her.
According to an MPD report, Pope called his girlfriend after finishing his police questioning.
“I’m going to jail,” he said, according to the report. “I raped two girls … the girls they talked about in the newspapers, by the campus. I’m sorry.”
Pope abducted both women at knifepoint, threatening to kill them if they turned around to look at his face, according to the MPD. He took them to his car, bounded their hands and drove them to his Fitchburg apartment where he assaulted them.
Pope then dropped the victims off in the area where he initially confronted them.
“These were definitely some high-profile [cases] because they were stranger-on-stranger,” MPD Public Information Officer Mike Hansen said. “It was so random and they were violent acts, and, in all essence, he kidnapped them and brought them from their downtown location to a remote area. Typically, we don’t see that.”
Pope waived his right to a preliminary hearing Jan. 2. A preliminary hearing gives the defense a chance to weigh their case and to see how witnesses will perform during testimony.
According to Verveer, the defense will waive this right to possibly get a better offer from the prosecution or to avoid publicity.
“Frankly, they also do it if they know there is virtually no way their client would win on a preliminary hearing,” Verveer added.
These attacks came at the end of 2006, a year that saw an increase in campus-area sexual assaults and muggings, particularly after bars closed for the night.
According to George Twigg, spokesperson for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the mayor’s proposed $100,000 safety plan for the downtown area should help curb the city’s crime problem.
“This is an effort to take a very focused approach to safety in the Madison area,” Twigg said, adding that the mayor hopes to have this plan in place by February.
Pope’s case will now go to trial, unless a settlement is reached out of court.
