State Courts

Woman says man impersonated police officer to gain entry to her house

By Ron Sylvester

A 35-year-old woman testified this morning that a man posed as a police officer as a ruse to attack her inside her Wichita home.

Sedgwick County District Judge Joseph Bribiesca ordered Michael W. Young to stand trial on two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery and one count of attempted rape following a preliminary hearing.

Young, 51, pleaded not guilty.

The woman identified Young in court as the man who blocked her car with his vehicle in her driveway Sept. 5, as she tried to leave with her 3-year-old daughter. She is not being identified because of an Eagle policy not to name potential victims of sex crimes.

She said Young displayed a badge and a gun and told her he had a search warrant to look for a man, who he named, but whom she didn’t know. She testified Young ordered her and her daughter into the house in the 1300 block of North Pershing, and took her to the basement. There, he pulled a gun on her, took her cell phone, threatened her and tried to sexually assault her.

At one point, the woman testified, she thought she was going to die and asked to say good-bye to her daughter.

The woman then said she fought with the man in the basement and the kitchen, where they both reached for knives. She ended up grabbing a pizza cutter and he a butter knife.

The woman said she and her daughter eventually scrambled out of the house. Young, she said, jumped in his car and drove away.

Young’s trial is tentatively set for April 20.

Full post as published by What the Judge Ate for Breakfast on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).