A 29-year-old South San Francisco man accused of raping a San Mateo woman he met on the MySpace Web site in 2006 pleaded no contest to felony false imprisonment in return for no more than a year in jail.
Rami George Tawasha changed his plea rather than begin a jury trial yesterday on charges of forced oral copulation, sexual penetration, sexual battery and false imprisonment. If convicted of those charges, Tawasha faced up to 15 years in prison.
Instead, both prosecutors and the court offered Tawasha no prison and up to a year in jail if he pleaded no contest to one felony count of false imprisonment. He returns to court Nov. 20 for receipt of a probation report and sentencing. Meanwhile, he remains free from custody on a $100,000 bail bond. According to prosecutors, in January 2006 Tawasha met the 23-year-old victim on MySpace, a popular social networking Internet site.
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They allegedly agreed to meet at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo and eventually returned to her home. After the couple initially kissed, Tawasha allegedly forced himself on the woman over her protests and drove her back to the shopping center.
The woman reported receiving multiple text message apologies from Tawasha in ensuing days. When a San Mateo police detective responded to one message under the guise of the victim, Tawasha responded by saying he was sorry and "hated himself,” according to the prosecution.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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