Victor Pena Pleads Not Guilty To Rape, Kidnapping JP Woman

BOSTON, MA — The man who is accused of abducting a woman outside a Boston bar earlier this year and then taking her to his home in Charlestown, pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court Wednesday.

Victor Pena, 38, pleaded not guilty to one count of kidnapping and 10 counts of aggravated rape. Authorities said he held the 23-year-old woman against her will and raped her several times at his Walford Way home in January, giving her only canned pineapple to eat throughout the three days.

Pena was escorted into the clerk magistrate's court Wednesday, hands cuffed, wearing a blue jumpsuit, facial hair grown out. He looked at his brother, who was sitting in the audience, and smiled and waved.

"Mi hermano" he said.

During the early part of the arraignment, he looked over at his brother several more times.

The prosecutor told the Court Magistrate that the 23-year-old Jamaica Plain woman had been drinking heavily before she left the bar in January, and that another man who saw Pena approach her outside told him to leave her alone.

"She has no memory of what came next," said Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, who said Pena hugged and kissed the woman before walking her to the Orange Line. A witness has said Pena propped the woman up and that her eyelids were fluttering, the prosecutor said.

When the woman woke up, she was on a bare mattress in a dirty apartment, next to a man she did not know, Polumbaum said. He added it was clear that Pena had had sex with her while she had been incapacitated.

When she gathered her belongings to leave the apartment, he refused to let her go and threatened to kill her, Polumbaum said. Pena told the woman he had rescued her and was happy the two could now start a family together.

Pena reportedly fed the woman only canned pineapple and vodka and Jack Daniels, even though she said the wheat in whiskey would make her sick. Polumbaum said Pena repeatedly forced the woman to have sex with him.

He said the defendant also forced her to pose for selfies and read the Bible out loud in Spanish to him.

Pena underwent a mental competency evaluation following his arrest in January. His attorney told reporters earlier this month at Charlestown District Court that he likely would be fit to stand trial. Pena's brother has described his brother as mentally slow.

Jose Pena said he and his family believe Victor is innocent and said he believed the girl was lying.

Pena's attorney told reporters after the arraignment that

"Generically, the crime of kidnapping requires lack of consent, and so does rape," he said.

Pena was ordered held without bail and was taken to the Nashua Street Jail. His brother told reporters after the arraignment he was being held separately from the rest of the population because of his mental health.

The woman's disappearance set off a three-day search that sparked national headlines and ended when she was found in Pena's Charlestown apartment. In the weeks following the woman's abduction a second woman went missing from a different Boston night club, prompting the mayor and the police commissioner to open up conversations with several establishments in the city about ways to better prevent something like this happening again.

The ADA read this in court today:

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• Suffolk Grand Jury Indicts Pena on Rape, Kidnapping Charges