Landlord charged in rape of tenant after 2-year wait for DNA results, Utah cops say
A Utah landlord has been arrested and charged in his tenant’s rape two years after she reported that he sexually assaulted her, police said.
Provo police arrested Erby Midy, the 45-year-old landlord, on Wednesday after DNA results came back from a state crime lab in July following a two-year delay, according to a probable cause statement McClatchy newsgroup obtained from Provo police.
The woman reported the rape to police in April 2017, saying her landlord was fixing a window at her apartment when he grabbed her hair, pulled her into a back bedroom and then sexually assaulted and raped her, the probable cause statement said.
The woman said she didn’t consent to any of the acts and underwent a sexual assault exam, which was sent to a crime lab, according to police.
Police said Midy was interviewed after the rape report and “denied any sexual activity consensual or not with the victim.” After getting a warrant, police swabbed Midy’s cheek for DNA and also sent that sample to the state crime lab so authorities could compare his DNA to the rape kit, according to the probable cause statement.
The results, which weren’t returned until this month, showed Midy’s DNA in the victim’s rape kit, police said. Police reached out to the woman following the years-long delay, “and she confirmed she wanted to proceed,” according to the probable cause statement.
Midy was booked Wednesday at the Utah County Jail on charges of rape and forcible sexual abuse, online jail records said.
Sgt. Nisha King of the Provo Police Department said in a phone interview Friday that she was not sure if the delayed DNA test results were caused by a backlog at the Utah state crime lab.
“We have a rapid DNA system now that is so much more efficient,” King said. “We got behind on the DNA testing for sexual assaults for a bit — but now that we’ve got this rapid DNA, things are changing.”
A background check of Midy in Utah didn’t reveal other any other criminal history, ABC4 reports.
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 11:19 AM.
