A pregnant woman who reported she was raped on Monday in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant in Portsmouth was acting affectionately with her attacker earlier in the day, according to waitresses at two separate restaurants.
Manchester police arrested Kevin Rabidou, 34, of Merrimack, Monday night for allegedly driving drunk after he plowed his vehicle into a snow bank.
Officers learned he was wanted for allegedly abducting and raping a woman in Portsmouth. He was arraigned in Manchester District Court yesterday morning and ordered held on $250,000 cash bail for the Port City charges.
Rabidou is accused of taking the woman, his one-time fiancee, out to lunch at The Rusty Hammer in Portsmouth and then raping her in the parking lot of Hong Kong Express, a Chinese restaurant on Islington Street.
Police said yesterday the woman is married and that her baby is not Rabidou's. She is 32 weeks pregnant.
The woman told Portsmouth police that Rabidou and she remained friends after she broke off their relationship. He called her Monday to accompany her to the dentist, but he suggested lunch after he couldn't find a dentist.
A waitress at the Rusty Hammer yesterday said Rabidou arrived holding hands with a very pregnant woman Monday afternoon and the pair continued to do so as they shared a plate of nachos.
"They seemed like they were together," said the waitress, who refused to provide her name, but gave a detailed account of what happened.
She said Rabidou ordered two vodka tonics. He drank one but left most of the other; the woman had an iced tea. Rabidou's credit card was run at 3:19 p.m., the waitress said.
Rabidou then took the woman to Hong Kong Express to pick up food for her husband, according to the affidavit.
"When they arrived in the parking lot, (the woman) stated that Rabidou would not allow her to get out, pinning her shoulders with his right arm," the affidavit says. "He then told her that he was going to rape her and that he would kill her if she screamed or tried to get away."
The woman told police Rabidou then sexually assaulted her.
"Throughout, Rabidou continued to tell her how much he loved her and how he had no option and that he would kill her," the affidavit says.
Anne Sy, a worker at Hong Kong Express, said yesterday that Rabidou and the woman both came into the restaurant Monday afternoon and appeared fine. She said Rabidou, whom she quickly recognized from a picture, used to be a regular and come in with the same pregnant woman.
"I've seen them together a lot of times," she said. Sy said she saw no indication anything was amiss Monday.
"He asked her if she wanted to order something and eat here and she said no," Sy said of Rabidou and the woman, adding, "They seemed like a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of thing."
In her statement to police, the victim makes no mention of entering the restaurant with Rabidou.
Rabidou drove her to the Portsmouth traffic circle liquor store and eventually the Wal-Mart on Route 1. He left her after she asked a Service Credit Union worker to use a phone and asked them not to let Rabidou near her.
The woman called a friend, who took her to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where she reported she was raped and was treated for injuries.
A Service Credit Union spokesman said yesterday employees recognized the woman as a member and allowed her to use a phone. She never asked for help keeping anyone away, the spokesman said.
"According to the information I got, she never voiced the sentiment that she needed protection from anyone," said spokesman Lori Holmes
Portsmouth police said they charged Rabidou for a variety of reasons beyond the woman's statement, though they are continuing to investigate her allegations. Rabidou has a criminal record in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, North Carolina and Maine that includes domestic-related crimes, according to Portsmouth police prosecutor Corey MacDonald.
Detective Sgt. Russell Russo said Rabidou was previously arrested in Salem for three aggravated felonious sexual assault charges. While all the charges were dropped, Russo said one of those allegations in 2004 was comparable to those leveled Monday.
"The modus operandi was very similar, right down to the things he said," Russo said.
Manchester police arrested Rabidou at Mammoth Road and Hanover Street at 7:20 p.m.
Rabidou had been scheduled for trial yesterday in Manchester District Court on a charge of driving after suspension.
Yesterday he pleaded innocent to new charges of DWI, operating after suspension second offense, resisting arrest, resisting detention, disobeying a police officer, possession of a prescription drug, possession of a controlled drug and attempted simple assault.
Rabidou could enter no plea at the district court level to the Portsmouth charges, which include aggravated felonious sexual assault, attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault and kidnapping.
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