SHEPHERDSVILLE, Kentucky – The victim of a bizarre strip search and sexual assault at a McDonald's restaurant testified she was given two choices after being accused of stealing money: agree to a strip search at the store, or go to police headquarters to be searched.
The victim's testimony came on the second day of the criminal trial of the man accused of posing as a police officer in the April 9, 2004 phone call to the restaurant. Authorities say David R. Stewart was the man who identified himself as "Officer Scott" over the phone and allegedly ordered the woman to be strip searched and, later, sexually abused. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
The fast-food restaurant's on-duty assistant manager, Donna Summers has already been sentenced to probation in connection to the incident. Her then fiance, Walter "Wes" Nix, Jr., who admitted to spanking, sodomizing and forcing the woman to masturbate, received five years in prison.
Authorities have said that the search follows a pattern of roughly 70 other such incidents reported at fast-food restaurants in several states.
In her testimony, the woman on Wednesday said she wanted to go to police headquarters in the hope of avoiding the search and that "maybe they would believe me."
She said Summers told her the search would be easier to do in the restaurant's office and, as a result, she was stripped and her clothes taken from her.
During the four-hour ordeal that night, Summers left the office and Nix to take the phone and continue to watch her, the woman said.
She said that Nix spanked her and she was ordered to perform oral sex on him.
Asked by prosecutors why she did not just leave, she said she was "naked and scared," The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reported Thursday. She also said that she was afraid that Nix, who had already hit her, would harm her again.
Summers and another assistant manager on-duty at the restaurant that night disputed the woman's claim that she was not allowed to go to the police station, saying she chose to stay and be searched at the restaurant.
Summers said "Officer Scott" had ordered her to strip the woman and search her for money and drugs. She also said she thought she could hear her boss' voice in the background telling her to follow the officer's directions.
Prosecutors have said, however, that there is no evidence that there was anyone else on the phone.
On Tuesday, Nix had testified that he spanked, sodomized and forced the 18-year-old employee to masturbate, all on orders from the stranger on the phone who said he was with McDonald's corporate office.
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