Gainesville Police arrested a local man Saturday afternoon on a charge of sexual battery after an officer reportedly saw him raping a UF student.
At about 1:30 a.m., Jarrod Roberts, 27, met the woman, a UF student, at a Midtown bar, according to a police report. Shortly after, the two drove Roberts’ scooter to his house. Roberts asked to have unprotected sex, and the woman refused. She then began walking home, accidentally leaving her phone at Roberts’ house.
Roberts convinced the woman to get her phone from his house, according to the report. On the 400 block of Southeast Fifth Avenue, she realized they weren’t walking the right direction and tried to leave. Roberts then dragged her into the driveway of an abandoned Gainesville Regional Utilities building.
The woman started to scream, but Roberts choked her, according to the report. He then forced her to perform oral sex before raping her.
When police drove by and saw the assault, Roberts ran away, according to the report. The woman then told the officer what happened.
At about 8:30 a.m., police questioned Roberts after seeing a scooter and a house that matched the description the woman gave them. The officer who witnessed the battery saw clothes in the house that matched the outfit of the man he saw, according to the report.
The woman was treated at UF Health Shands Hospital, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
Roberts has been the subject of two separate complaints of stalking people he met through Tinder, Tobias said.
Police arrested Roberts on a charge of sexual battery. Authorities took him to the Alachua County Jail where he remained as of press time in lieu of a $750,000 bond.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 4/6/2015 under the headline “Gainesville man arrested for rape”]
