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Homeless woman nearly loses pants
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Posted on Jul 23 2020
Department of Corrections officers escort 22-year-old Jess Sowar to the CNMI Supreme Court courtroom for bail hearing last Friday. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)
A 22-year-old man was recently arrested for allegedly trying to remove the pants of a homeless woman who was sleeping in an open tarp in Chalan Kanoa.
The Office of the Attorney General filed an information Tuesday charging Jeff Sowar with disturbing the peace.
According to assistant attorney general Erin K. Toolan in the charging document, Sowar attempted to remove the woman’s pants while she was sleeping last Thursday.
A $500 cash bail was imposed on Sowar.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho agreed Tuesday to convert the preliminary hearing yesterday to an arraignment and change of plea hearing.
Police detective Shannon A. Dela Cruz stated in her report that the Department of Public Safety dispatched officers last Thursday at 3:48am, to respond to a report of attempted rape along Doctor Torres Drive in Chalan Kanoa.
Dela Cruz said the police learned that the victim is a homeless woman who currently lives in an open-air tarp next to an abandoned and destroyed house. The alleged victim told police that she was sleeping at about 3am or 4am when someone she identified as Sowar tried to pull her pants down. A police officer later drove around the area and spotted Sowar who was walking along Doctor Torres Drive.
Sowar was then arrested.
The victim told police that she was lying down and saw Sowar standing between her legs. She sat up quickly on the edge of a plywood bed frame. Sowar told her that he wants “something,” but she replied she has a boyfriend. Sowar replied that’s he’s not her boyfriend because they were sleeping separately.
She said she slept in a separate bed because it was hot and her boyfriend slept on another futon that was next to the futon she had slept on. Both futons are made of plywood.
Another man (witness) who lives with the victim and her boyfriend in the tarp told Sowar to leave. Sowar allegedly did not listen and kept calling her to follow him outside. The boyfriend woke up and yelled at Sowar and that’s when he left.
The witness said that, prior to that incident, Sowar had also awakened his wife, who was sleeping on the bed of a Toyota Tacoma, which was near the tarp. The witness said his wife woke him up because Sowar was bothering her.
