A magistrate judge on Thursday set a $1 million bond for the man arrested Wednesday in the kidnapping and gang rape of a home health nurse in a rundown fourplex on the edge of Central City last week. Police, meanwhile, released an incident report a week after the attack. An application for an arrest warrant filed in Orleans Parish criminal court shed more light on the crime, which police said little about until the arrest Wednesday of Brian Beasley, 21.
Beasley surrendered to police after they secured an arrest warrant for him and three others, based on information detectives gathered during the investigation, said Remi Braden, a New Orleans police spokeswoman.
Beasley, whose arrest register lists him as a mechanic who lives in Central City about two miles from where the attack occurred, was booked with armed robbery, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping, according to Orleans Parish criminal court records. He was in protective custody and not present for his first hearing Thursday morning but was brought to the courtroom and notified of his bond during a 3 p.m. hearing, according to court records.
Three other suspects remained at large Wednesday. They are Jermaine Rumley, 21; Darren Holmes, 19; and Glenn Elliott, 17. The men are considered armed and dangerous, Braden said. A fifth suspect has been identified by first name only, according to the arrest warrant.
The warrant application says Holmes lives in the 4200 block of Walmsley Avenue, about six blocks from where the assault occurred.
Rumley, Holmes and Elliott each have several felony arrests, including firearms charges. Beasley has been booked with drug charges on several occasions.
The issuance of the warrants Wednesday led to Beasley's surrender that evening, Braden said.
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Beasley's exact role in the attack was not immediately clear. The victim, a 53-year-old woman, said she was preparing to visit a patient in the 4100 block of Thalia Street about 4 p.m. Jan. 26 when two armed men approached her and tried to rob her, according to police documents.
The area is desolate and made up largely of derelict structures and overgrown lots. The victim was a dedicated nurse who was not known to refuse visits to those who needed them, according to several friends and colleagues.
The men initially asked her for money, according the police report, and then one of them got into her car and forced her to drive away.
The man directed her to a fourplex in the 1300 block of South Gayoso Street, two blocks away from where she was abducted, where as many as a half-dozen men who wore bandannas over their faces raped her, police have said.
A witness told investigators he saw five men with white T-shirts over their faces leave an abandoned house in the 4300 block of Thalia Street, according to the arrest warrant application. The witness said the men then went into a rundown house in the 1300 block of South Gayoso Street, around the corner from the Thalia Street address.
The witness said he later saw the men leave the home with the shirts off their faces and carrying a cell phone and iPad-looking device. According to the arrest warrant application, the victim told police the suspects took her cell phone and an electronic tablet.
Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, in a prepared statement released Wednesday night, called the crime "unconscionable" and praised citizens who shared information with detectives. It was the first time the department said anything publicly about the incident since issuing a two-sentence summary in a daily police log a week earlier.
"The information we've obtained so far has enabled us to put names on these alleged attackers, who have no right to be roaming the streets tonight with law-abiding citizens," Serpas said. "We are extremely grateful to those who have spoken up about this unconscionable crime."
Before Beasley's arrest, police had refused to confirm any information about the attack. Doing so, they said, would have jeopardized the investigation and put the victim at risk.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the remaining suspects can call 9-1-1 or Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or 877.903.7867.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at
[email protected] or 504.826
