Wayne Melear, 35, has been charged with sexual assault and other offenses after allegedly drugging a man he met at a gay bar and then allegedly assaulting him sexually.
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By PHIL LAPADULA
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Police have arrested a homeless man in connection with a May 17 incident in which a gay man says he was drugged, sexually assaulted and robbed after going home with a stranger he met at Smarty Pants, a gay bar in Fort Lauderdale, police said.
Wayne A. Melear, 35, was arrested July 1 and charged with sexual battery, felony battery, home invasion/robbery with injury, forgery and grand theft, according to the complaint affidavit. A second suspect, Carl Hazelett, was arrested after attempting to cash a check that was allegedly stolen from the victim and given to him by Melear, police said. Hazelett has been charged with forgery and possession of stolen property.
In addition to allegedly violently assaulting the victim, Melear is also accused of stealing the victim’s truck, police said. Police are withholding the victim’s name because it is department policy not to disclose the name of a victim of sexual assault, Fort Lauderdale police spokesperson Kathy Collins said.
According to police, both suspects are homeless. There is no telephone listing for either Melear or Hazelett in the phone directories of Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach counties. A spokesperson for the Broward County Public Defender’s Office said neither suspect had been assigned a public defender yet.
The victim told police that he met a man fitting Melear’s description at about 2 p.m. May 17 at Smarty Pants, which is located at the corner of U.S. 1 and Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. The victim said he began a conversation with the man and, into his second drink, he excused himself to go to the bathroom, the police report says. When he returned, he said he felt intoxicated. The suspect offered to drive him home, the report says.
“The victim said he really did not remember much after that other than the subject drove him home in his Toyota Tacoma,” the police report says.
Victim’s drink may
have been drugged
The victim said he woke up and found himself “lying on the floor with a large cut above his right eye,” according to the police report. “He also said he was bleeding from the anus,” the report says.
The victim said he then noticed that the keys to his truck were missing. When he looked outside, he noticed his truck was missing, the report says.
According to police, the victim described being “mentally and physically incapacitated by an unknown substance possibly placed in his drink while at the bar.”
The police report also states that the victim said he must have been unconscious when he was sexually attacked without his consent by “an unknown object during the course of anal penetration, which resulted in bleeding.”
Melear has a lengthy criminal record, including charges of possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, filed in June 1995; aggravated battery, filed in December 1996; “shoot/throw into vehicle” and aggravated assault, filed in March 1997; “battery upon a detainee,” filed in November 1997; driving on a revoked license and careless driving, filed in May 2005; and “trespassing a structure with a dangerous weapon,” filed in March 2006; according to Broward County court records.
Forged check leads to arrest
Hazelett was arrested June 28 when he attempted to cash a check on the alleged sexual-assault victim’s bank account at a check cashing store at 850 N. Federal Hwy., police said. In an interview, Hazelett told police that Melear wrote the check and gave it to him to cash, police said.
The check was made payable to Hazelett. A clerk at the check-cashing store became suspicious and called the alleged sexual-assault victim, who told her that the check had been stolen from him.
Prior to Melear’s arrest, at least two other gay bar patrons told police they had been robbed after meeting someone matching the suspect’s description at local gay bars. Neither of the alleged victims wanted to give his name, according to Det. Brice Brittenum, gay liaison for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Brittenum posted a flyer in local gay bars asking other potential victims to come forward, but no one did. Melear has only been charged in the one incident.
According to police, Michael Vyka, a friend of Hazelett’s who is also homeless, said Melear often hung out with them. He also told police that Melear “frequents gay bars so he can ‘hustle’ gay men,” the report says.
Vyka was with Hazelett when he tried to cash the check, but he said he knew nothing about the incident. Police questioned him but did not charge him.
The sexual-assault victim’s truck was recovered near the check-cashing store.
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