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FARMINGTON — A West Point man who pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of assaulting and sexually abusing a woman he wouldn't let leave his home has been sentenced to prison.
Brandon Dunaj went to a concert with the woman in September 2019 and assaulted her on the way back to his home and again after they arrived at his home, charges say. On Sept. 5, the now 44-year-old man pleaded guilty.
Dunaj was sentenced on Nov. 21 to between one and 15 years in prison for forcible sexual abuse and between one and 15 years for aggravated assault, both second-degree felonies. He was also ordered to serve zero to five years in prison for attempted kidnapping, a third-degree felony.
Second District Judge Rita Cornish ordered Dunaj to serve the sentence for forcible sexual abuse consecutively to the other charges, so he could serve between two and 30 years in prison.
On the night of the assault, a police booking affidavit says the woman made two attempts to leave Dunaj's home and he "dragged her by her hair inside the house where he continued to assault her."
Dunaj also forced the woman to have sex with him, to which she "did not consent but agreed because she did not want to be assaulted again," the report says.
The affidavit says the woman escaped from the house when Dunaj was asleep and knocked on neighbors' doors looking for help; she was then treated at a hospital.
In the same November hearing, Dunaj was sentenced in a separate case to one year in jail — which he can serve while in prison — for sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor. That case was originally charged as two first-degree felonies but the plea deal, also entered on Sept. 5, dismissed a charge for object rape and reduced the other charge from rape to sexual battery.
