A Homestead man is back on the street after being arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a public restroom at a mall in Plantation.
It happened May 14, when Terrence Lewis Style approached the woman in the food court area of the Broward Mall and struck up a conversation, according to the arrest report.
The woman - who has been diagnosed with Autism-Asperger Syndrome - had just finished volunteering as a mentor for a group of children with autism who were on a field trip to the mall, the report stated.
Style, 41, started flirting with her and they exchanged phone numbers before he asked her if she wanted to go to an “adult place where porn stars go to have sex,” police said.
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She declined and told him of her cognitive impairment, but he persuaded her to follow him to a public restroom after realizing she had difficulty resisting his persistent coercion, investigators said.
Once inside the larger family restroom, Style locked the door and joined her in a stall, blocking the doorway with his six-foot tall, 300-pound frame.
According to the report, he removed some of her clothing and sexually battered her then forced her to touch him. As he was washing himself in the sink, she ran out and warned a woman passerby “there was a rapist inside” the restroom.
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They caught the attention of a mall security guard who called Plantation Police. An officer confronted Style in the parking lot and he resisted being handcuffed.
When Style was in custody, the officer found a 9mm Taurus handgun and ammunition in his backpack and a magazine in his pants pocket. He claimed to be holding the gun for a friend, police said.
When questioned, detectives said Style told the officer “I didn’t do anything to that girl, you can see she’s crazy.” He later changed his story when asked if his DNA would be found on her body.
Mall security camera video showed Style with the woman entering and leaving the restroom area.
Style was arrested and is facing charges that include sexual battery, false imprisonment and carrying a concealed firearm. He was released from the Broward County Jail on May 16 on bonds totaling $34,500, records show.
