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OREM -- Orem police have tracked down a man suspected of raping a woman he met last week in a bar. They say he gave the woman a pill that caused her to lose consciousness.
Detectives arrested the man Wednesday night. The alleged victim says she invited the man to her apartment and was persuaded by him to take a pill, which he claimed would help her sleep.
"After taking the pill, she doesn't really remember anything," says Orem Sgt. Craig Martinez. The last thing she remembers is waking up a few hours later in her bedroom with this man sexually assaulting her. Then after that, she doesn't remember anything for several hours; and she does wake up, she was undressed."
The 24-year-old woman is from Orem. Detectives discovered the pill she was given was Seroquel, commonly used to treat bipolar patients. When combined with alcohol, the drug's side effects can be dramatically increased, and police say it caused the woman to sleep for more than eight hours.
Detectives say the woman now regrets trusting the man and taking the pill.
"You shouldn't take pills or anything from people, one, you don't know and, two, you don't know what it is," Martinez said. "She had no idea what she was taking. She had no idea what it was going to do to her, and now she is paying that price."
Police followed several leads on the man, and discovered Wednesday he was living at a motel in Provo. Jason Christensen, 26, was arrested on charges of rape and distribution of a prescription.
Christensen has been booked into the Utah County Jail. He is waiting $10,000 bail.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
