OCEAN CITY — A Georgetown, Delaware man this week was charged with rape after an investigation connected him to sexual assault at an uptown Ocean City residence earlier this month that was recorded on his friend’s cellphone.
Around 4 a.m. on April 13, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer on patrol in the 141st Street area was approached by a female who needed help. The victim told police she had just woken up in a house naked and did not know where she was. The victim told police she did not remember everything that had happened throughout the night and that she believed she had been raped.
The victim told police she had gone to a downtown bar with a friend and that they had met up with two men she knew including Isaac Lopez, 21, of Georgetown. The victim told police the group stayed at the bar until closing time and then shared a cab to a residence on 12th Street. Around 2:50 a.m., the group decided to check out another party uptown at 141st Street and took a cab to the location. The victim told police Lopez and the other man had to wake her up in the cab when they arrived at 141st Street and they went into the residence where a supposed party was going on, but there was only one individual there sleeping on a couch.
The victim told police with nothing else going on, she went into a bedroom across the hall and laid down on the bed fully clothed and went to sleep. The victim told police she awoke a short time later and observed a light she believed was a cell phone camera. She also noticed that someone was lying on top of her in the midst of having sexual intercourse with her. As she became more aware of her surroundings, the victim told police she observed one of the men she came to the residence with away from the bed filming her with a cell phone.
The victim told police she pushed the person off of her, whom she believed was Lopez because he was on the bed when she stood up and there was no one else in the room except the intrepid cameraman. The victim said she was naked below the waist, but found her clothes and quickly got dressed and left, which is when she flagged down the OCPD officer.
The victim was taken to Atlantic General Hospital to have a SAFE exam. OCPD detectives located Lopez and the other man and brought them in for questioning. Both Lopez and the other man told police Lopez had consensual sex with the victim. Upon further questioning, the other man admitted he had video-recorded some of the sexual contact between Lopez and the victim and that he used his cell phone to record the footage.
After consent was given to search the phone, OCPD detectives located two videos of Lopez allegedly having intercourse with the apparently unconscious victim. According to police reports, the victim was motionless throughout the videos and there were also still photographs of Lopez allegedly sexually assaulting the victim on the phone. According to police reports, there was audio in the videos that include at least one person laughing. It’s important to note the cell phone photographer was named in the report, but his name is being withheld because he has not been charged.
Lopez was charged this week with second-degree rape and second-degree sexual offense. At a bail review hearing on Tuesday, he was ordered to be held on a $100,000 bond
