A woman was standing at a bus stop in the 1500 block of West University Avenue in the fall of 2011 when a man pressed a handgun into her back and forced her into a car, charges say.
Then he drove her to a dark area with no street lights and raped her.
That’s the account alleged in a criminal complaint charging Drey Lamar Lee, 25, with two counts of first-degree criminal conduct and one count of kidnapping.
The complaint was filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.
The woman, who was 36 at the time, later told a St. Paul police officer that the man threatened to shoot her if she didn’t cooperate, according to the complaint.
After the assault, which reportedly took place in the car, the man drove the woman to a parking lot and “yanked” her out of the vehicle, causing the woman to hit her head and pass out, charges say.
She reportedly woke up in the parking lot alone with her pants down below her waist. It was Oct. 28, 2011.
A sexual assault examination was conducted and the kit submitted to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing.
The state agency reported on March 27 that the male DNA profile obtained from swabs taken from the woman matched the male DNA profile submitted in a separate St. Paul criminal sexual conduct case that took place in 2016, the complaint said.
Lee was the suspect in the 2016 case.
He was interviewed by St. Paul police Monday and denied the allegations.
After being shown a photo of the reported victim, Lee said he recognized her but didn’t know her name. He said the woman repeatedly sends him “friend” requests on Facebook and asks him to secure her marijuana, according to the complaint.
He denied engaging in sexual activity with her or raping her and accused his sister of persuading the woman to make up the allegations against him.
He told the officer that he’d moved to St. Paul in 2006 and has been homeless since he was 18.
Lee’s criminal record includes three petty misdemeanors for selling a small amount of marijuana and disorderly conduct.
Neither he nor his relatives could be immediately reached for comment.
The executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Jeanne Ronayne, said Tuesday that best estimates indicate 90 percent of sexual assault cases occur between people who are at least casually known to each other.
“Stranger assaults are the ones we are generally most fearful of and for good reason, but they do tend to be the ones that happen most infrequently,” Ronayne said.