OAKLAND — On Dec. 14, 2022, Walter Lee Young put down a $31,000 premium to get himself out of jail in a criminal case where he stood accused of holding a man hostage for hours while he sexually abused and beat the victim.
Young was released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and outfitted with a GPS ankle monitor. But according to police, none of this was enough to keep Young from committing a near-identical crime within six weeks of his release.
Now, Young is back in Santa Rita, this time with bail set at $2.065 million. And he’s facing nine felony charges in two separate cases, which prosecutors hope to consolidate at a February court date. The counts include forced sodomy, forcible oral copulation, robbery, false imprisonment, and assault with intent to commit a sex crime, court records show.
Both crimes are near-identical, according to police statements in court records. Authorities allege that both victims met Young on different dating apps for gay men, and that they showed up to his San Leandro apartment on East 14th Street. There, both men reported feeling uncomfortable and attempting to leave, only to be rebuffed.
The first man reported that Young held him for nine hours, forced him to perform oral sex for several hours straight. The man alleged Young beat him with a curtain rod, held a lighter to his face, stabbed him, and wrapped a ligature around his neck, leaving red marks. After Young allowed the man to leave, the man’s injuries were so obvious that a neighbor noticed him and called 911, authorities say.
Young was arrested that day, and on Dec. 2, Alameda County prosecutors charged him with four felonies. He posted $310,000 bail 12 days later, records show.
Then, on Jan. 24, police say it happened again. A second man showed up to Young’s apartment after meeting him on a different dating app, agreed to a sex act, but was not allowed to leave the apartment, prosecutors allege. The man later told police Young used him “like a punching bag,” and that he raped and forced him to perform oral sex over the next three-and-half-hours.
Police allege that Young would not let the second man leave until he sent Young $250 on a wire transfer app, at around 8 p.m. on Jan. 24. Within an hour, the man was at the San Leandro police station filing a report.
Once again, Young was arrested at his apartment, still wearing the GPS ankle monitor from the previous case, authorities say. Prosecutors filed five new felony counts against him three days later.
Source: www.mercurynews.com