A text message from the alleged perpetrator of a sexual assault to his victim led to an arrest and three felony charges filed in Platte County last week.
James Dennis Knight, 66, remains in custody in the Platte County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond stemming from an incident that occurred late on the evening of Saturday, April 11 when the Alabama man apparently followed his alleged victim home from a Platte City bar to her residence on Fourth Street.
According to a probable cause statement, the victim went to the bar with friends and encountered an older white male there who identified himself as “Fred” during a conversation. Fred claimed to live in the Overland Park, Kan. area.
The victim left and returned home some time before midnight and parked in the garage.
Upon exiting the vehicle, she found Fred standing inside her garage and then admittedly allowed him to follow her into the house. Fred then allegedly attacked, hitting her and choking her before dragging her into a bedroom. He then allegedly removed her clothes and attempted to engage in a sexual act before striking her multiple times with a closed fist in the area of her vagina.
The victim claims to have scratched the perpetrator with her nails on his genitals to halt the attack before forcing him out the front door and locking it behind him.
The victim reported the crime to the Platte City Police Department the following day. On April 17, she received a text message from an unknown phone number that read, “Still mad at me Fred.” Believing it to be from the attacker, she turned the information over to authorities who traced the number to a cell phone belonging to Knight.
The victim then identified Knight’s driver’s license photo from a lineup and identified that person as Fred, her attacker. Three other people at the bar that night also identified Knight out of the photo lineup as being there that night, two of which said he left with or followed the victim home.
As of April 20 when the Platte City Police Department filed its probable cause statement, the victim was still passing blood in her urine and under doctor’s care for the injuries received in the attack.
Knight faces charges of burglary, sodomy and first-degree assault.