The attorney for a serial rape suspect accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting at least three women while free on $500,000 bond in another sexual assault case made it clear on Thursday what he thought of the women accusing his client.
Michael T. Davis, 57, of Mifflin Township, will be held without bond pending trial after a Thursday hearing during which Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Andy Miller found Davis to be a danger to public safety.
"We’re seeing a pattern here that this defendant preys upon the weakest among us — drug addicts, people dealing drugs, prostitutes — and thinks he can get away with these acts because of who he is targeting," Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Vincent Bruni said.
But before Miller made his decision, Davis' attorney, Thomas Gjostein, said any assertion by prosecutors that Davis was taking advantage of women enduring hard times was wrong and the women could be interpreted as "getting as much money out of (Davis) as they could."
"We've had significant testimony that each person here is a prostitute and, frankly, likely, a street hooker which is different than one might consider a high call or a high-profile woman," Gjostein said.
Miller said he heard Gjostein's argument, but based on the request for no bond, he had to evaluate the testimony presented.
"Your very first defense is they’re street hookers, and I don't know what to do with that," Miller said. "I should assume they’re liars because they’re hookers? That they pay for or asked for or agreed to what they’ve alleged because you can't rape someone who has otherwise consented to sex? You can rape a hooker, so I don’t know what to make of that."
Davis had been given a $500,000 bond for charges of rape, kidnapping and felonious assault after he was accused of a March 2023 sexual assault, as well as a charge of failure to notify authorities of a change of address as a previously convicted sex offender.
He now faces an additional three counts of kidnapping and five counts of rape in connection to assaults that took place over seven days while he was out on bond.
Davis has previous sexual assault convictions dating back to at least the late 1990s, as well as several charges that were dismissed or for which Davis was found not guilty.
Additional details in the case against Davis were also revealed in the testimony of Franklin County Sheriff's detective Jason Moore.
Moore testified that, after being arrested, Davis said on a recorded jail call to his wife that had he not been caught, his behavior would have continued — and gotten worse. Moore also testified there were searches on Davis' cellphone for how to steal Social Security numbers, foreign countries that did not have extradition treaties with the U.S. and for countries that had registration requirements for sexual offenders.
Affidavits for several search warrants also revealed new details:
In one affidavit, detectives wrote that one of the three victims told Franklin County Sheriff's detectives she met Davis on May 17 at East Livingston and Lilley avenues, in the Driving Park neighborhood. The woman said she got into a GMC Denali pickup truck to sell the driver cocaine, however, the driver drove around the corner, pulled a knife and told her, "I'll show you what I do to prostitutes."
The affidavit states the man told the woman his name was Mike and took her to his home on the 3700 block of Earl Avenue. Detectives later identified the man as Davis.
The woman told detectives Davis took her to an upstairs bedroom and ordered her to undress and engage in sexual activity at knifepoint. He bound her hands with a dog leash and told her he already stabbed one woman in the room, showing her a photograph of another woman, court records state.
Davis held the woman for two days until someone knocked on the door and the woman ran out of the back while Davis was distracted, court records state. The woman stated she picked up a piece of paper off a table that had names on it.
Court records say that document was a vehicle registration for Davis' wife, and the woman identified a photograph of the home and Davis out of a photo lineup.
A second woman came forward May 28, saying Davis sexually assaulted her, too. Two days later, the woman said Davis spoke to her on the phone and asked her to come to the Earl Avenue home.
Both women said Davis had offered them money for "his safety."
The second woman, according to court records, told detectives Davis also offered to let her use his car for 30 days because he did not have any money to give to her.
On May 31, detectives pulled Davis over in his 2019 GMC Denali, with a woman in the front seat. According to court records, the woman told detectives she met Davis around 2 a.m. the day before and that they went to Davis' home, where he'd forced her to perform sexual acts while holding a knife to her throat.
The woman had Davis' phone, which she said he gave to her, and that several other women who said they were victims reached out to him on it over the course of the two days, court records state..
Detectives seized multiple laptops, cellphones, cameras and memory cards from Davis' home, as well as DNA samples.
Davis indicated he intends to appeal Miller's decision to hold him without bond. He also told Miller he would like to be moved to a different area of the Franklin County jail because he is locked down in his cell 22 hours a day.
Davis' case will be set for trial at a later date.
bbruner@gannett.com
