Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Man gets life in rape of prostitute

Two women testified that a former Pinellas drug counselor forced them to perform sexual acts against their will.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published May 20, 2006

TAMPA - As a jury's deliberations dragged on for six hours Friday, the question became inevitable.

Would six jurors convict Michael Joseph Albert of sexual battery when his victim was a hired prostitute?

The answer came just before 3 p.m.

Yes.

Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe sentenced the former Pinellas County Operation PAR drug counselor to life in prison.

"You," he told Albert, "are a monster."

The tough words followed a week-long trial of tough images. There was the petite, 46-year-old woman who said she willingly got into Albert's white van on Thanksgiving Day 2004 but then found herself handcuffed, shackled and forced to perform sexual acts she never agreed to.

When she resisted, the towering man zapped her with a stun gun, she testified.

Then came another prostitute, who described a similarly horrific night she spent with Albert only days before the other victim. She testified that Albert repeatedly raped her and hit her with a stun gun.

Finally, prosecutors showed jurors a videotape of Albert allegedly forcing sex on an unidentified woman to show his proclivity for such behavior.

"I'm going to rape you," Albert said matter-of-factly on the tape.

That tape, defense attorney Joe Bodiford said, should never have been allowed at trial. He will appeal.

"That's the only reason these people convicted him," Bodiford said after the verdict. "They didn't convict him for the 46-year-old victim. They convicted him because they're scared of him."

Tharpe defended his decision to let jurors see the tape and hear from the second victim under the Williams Rule, which allows prosecutors to bring up prior crimes to establish a person's methods and identity.

"If ever there was a case where the Williams Rule applies, this is it," Tharpe said during sentencing. "What you did, no animal deserves."

Assistant State Attorney Rita Peters said Albert used his knowledge about drug addicts to prey on prostitutes hooked on crack cocaine.

Before getting hired as a drug counselor for Operation PAR, the Clearwater man was on probation from 1994 to 1999 for exposing himself to multiple women in Pennsylvania.

Albert still faces multiple counts of sexual battery, armed kidnapping and battery for two other November 2004 attacks.

He declined a plea deal for those cases that would have allowed him to serve a 10-year sentence concurrent with the one he received Friday. Unless Albert changes his mind over the weekend, Tharpe will pick a jury for one of those cases Monday.

The jury on Friday found Albert not guilty on one count of sexual battery. Tharpe sentenced him to life in prison for armed kidnapping with the intent to harm or terrorize, plus 15 years for a count of sexual battery and one year in county jail for battery.

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 20, 2006, 07:07:16]