St. Paul mom-to-be shoved into van, raped

A 22-year-old pregnant woman taking a Saturday afternoon walk from her apartment to a store on St. Paul's East Side was forced into a car by a stranger, driven around the block and shoved into a van in a garage, where she was repeatedly sexually attacked.

At least three to four other males were inside the garage during the June 14 assault, according to a police search warrant.

At least two of them raped her and others may have forced her to perform sex acts, the warrant says.

On Monday, as part of a continuing investigation, the Ramsey County attorney's office charged Lord A. Kendrick, 20, of St. Paul, with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in the attack.

Kendrick was identified by the victim as one of the two men who raped her, the charges say.

The woman, who is 6 months pregnant, reported the rapes to police a week after the incident, according to Cmdr. Shari Gray, who heads the St. Paul Police Department's sex crimes unit.

"It took her awhile to gain enough [strength] to call," Gray said. "This is a real trauma for her."

According to the search warrant, after the woman was raped by her first attacker, she stepped away to throw up and a second assailant said, "Don't pull your pants up yet" before he raped her.

The victim told police that she had had no previous contact with her attackers.

Kendrick, who made his initial court appearance Monday, has an "extensive criminal history involving guns, drugs and robberies," according to a search warrant filed Monday.

Early Monday afternoon, no one answered the door at the residence in the 1200 block of Cook Avenue E., where the homes appear well-kept and the yards are tidy. Across the street, an 8-year-old girl watered the lawn. A next-door neighbor declined to comment, citing fear of retribution.

According to Ramsey County property records, the home where the attack occurred was built in 2005 and currently is valued at $285,500. The garage tucks under the house and is obscured by garages at the Atlantic Place Apartments.

According to the complaint filed against Kendrick on Monday, a man sitting in a gold car across the street from the house saw the victim, who was walking to a store from her nearby apartment. He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her inside the car.

After he drove the car around the block, two other males led the woman into the garage, where they took off her pants and where she was forced to perform oral sex on one man. She then was raped by a second man, and as she stepped away, the first rapist reappeared with a condom.

The second man raped her, the charges say, and when she became sick again, he said: "Just take it."

"Additional young males came into the garage and watched," according to the complaint, and when the two alleged rapists "finished with her, she ran from the garage."

A search warrant says that at least three men who were watching the initial attacks also forced the woman to perform oral sex on them.