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Man returned to U.S. to face Pinellas rape charges

ST. PETERSBURG -- A 53-year-old Pinellas County man who fled to France to avoid arrest on a sexual battery charge has been brought back to face charges, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department.

Alan Boyd Curtis, formerly of Tarpon Springs, is a suspect in a rape that occurred on a boat about 10 miles off of the Pinellas County coast in 2005.

Curtis had fled to France that year to avoid arrest, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

He was subsequently arrested in France, then jumped bail and escaped to Spain where he was picked up again and had been held until Friday, when he was returned to the United States and Pinellas County, deputies said.

Curtis is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met at work out on a boat on Feb. 20, 2005. Once at sea, they fished for a while, then he threw her cell phone overboard and sexually battered her several times, according to deputies.

At one point, the victim jumped overboard, and Curtis told her she could get back in the boat or risk freezing, drowning or being eaten by sharks, sheriff's officials said. Back at the boat ramp, the alleged victim ran away, and notified detectives the next day.

When Curtis left the country, he violated probation from an earlier case.

In 1999 he pled guilty to two counts of sexual battery and one count of robbery  involving a St. Petersburg crime, and received a 20 year suspended sentence and probation.

He currently faces one count of sexual battery for the 2005 incident, and three counts of violation of probation for the St. Petersburg crimes.
Previously, Curtis fled to a western state after stabbing a man to death with a frog gig during an argument in Largo in 1982.

Curtis lived under an assumed name out West for 11 years before he was apprehended when his wife turned him in. He was brought back and convicted of manslaughter in 1993 for the stabbing incident.

By then, members of the victim's family had decided to let go of their anger and forgive him. That helped persuade a judge to let Curtis plead to a lesser charge, manslaughter, and receive a 12-year suspended prison sentence. Instead of prison, the judge sentenced Curtis to two years of house arrest followed by eight years of probation.

[Last modified February 24, 2007, 11:51:30]