Homeless shelter security stop man hell bent on assaulting “rapist”
OGDEN UT July 11 2020 — A 24-year-old man went as “backup” with a friend to confront an alleged rapist and ended up in jail himself, accused of attacking the man with scissors.
Jonathan Andrew McBride was charged Wednesday in 2nd District Court with two third-degree felonies: aggravated assault and use of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person.
The trouble began Tuesday when a woman told her boyfriend, McBride’s friend, that another man had sexually assaulted her, an Ogden Police Department probable cause statement said.
The friend called McBride to “back him up” in confronting the alleged sexual assailant to tell him to leave the woman alone, the affidavit said.
They found the man at the Lantern House homeless shelter and McBride allegedly attacked him, forcing him to the ground.
McBride allegedly grabbed the man by the neck and held a dagger-shaped pair of scissors to his head and threatened him.
Shelter security guards separated them and called police.
Investigating officers said the alleged assault victim told them he thought McBride was going to kill him.
McBride’s friend said he did not intend that McBride would attack the other man.
Asked about the incident, McBride told an officer, “I was confronting a rapist,” the arrest affidavit said.
There was no immediate word on an investigation of the alleged rape.
The alleged assault also constituted a parole violation for McBride, who was put on three years’ probation in 2018 after pleading guilty to five counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor.
In that case, the Utah Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said they found more than 800 explicit images of prepubescent girls and boys on digital devices and in online accounts controlled by McBride.
State prosecutors charged McBride with 10 counts of sexual exploitation and he admitted to five of them in a plea bargain. The other counts were dismissed.
Judge Joseph Bean sentenced McBride to five suspended state prison terms of 1 to 15 years and 105 days in jail with credit for 105 days served, plus probation.
