Alleged rape victim says assailant threatened to kill child

An Athens woman who has alleged she was raped by a New York physician she met over the Internet told Athens County sheriff's officers that the man threatened to kill her young nephew if she did not submit, according to documents filed in the man's felony case.

In a sheriff's report included as part of a court filing in the case of Charles H. Nguyen, the officer who interviewed the woman stated that she told him Nguyen first told her that he "wanted to exam her" on her bed in her apartment, then after she "started to resist," told her, "if you don't cooperate I will kill your 3-year-old nephew," who was apparently in another room of the home.

The woman also alleged that Nguyen "tied her hands and feet with nylon white rope" and raped her. She told the officer that "she just agreed with (Nguyen) to make everything OK for herself and (her) nephew," the report added.

The report was included in a court filing Friday by the Athens County prosecutor's office, in which the state informed Nguyen's attorneys that it has no plans to seize a piece of physical evidence the defense has requested "“ the alleged victim's bed.

"The state does not have in its possession the mattress, headboard, or any part of the victim's bed in its possession," assistant prosecutor Sabrina J. Ennis wrote in a court filing Friday. "The state also does not intend to further victimize the victim in this case by removing and retaining her possessions."

Nguyen, 31, who at the time of his arrest was a physician in residency at a hospital in The Bronx, has pled not guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary and evidence tampering.

He was arrested and brought back to Athens County after a woman who lives in Athens told authorities that he had restrained her and raped her in her home May 19.

The two had reportedly met over the Internet, and Nguyen had come to visit the woman in early May. The woman claims that after she told Nguyen she did not want a relationship with him, he left town, but then returned on May 19 and raped her.

Nguyen, according to a report by a state investigative agency, has said he and the woman had consensual sex multiple times, in the bed where she claims the rape took place.

Nguyen's defense attorneys have asked the state to preserve a variety of evidence, including the bed. They want the bed tested for evidence such as body fluids, arguing that if fluids from someone other than Nguyen or the alleged victim are found on the bed, this could help clear their client.

In Ennis' reply to this request, she noted that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCII), as part of its processing of the alleged crime scene, did take samples "from the various areas on the bed and around the bed." Areas from which swabs were taken included stains on the headboard, mattress, and the carpet around the bed, she wrote.