The man charged in a brutal and random rape of a UW-Madison student last weekend told police that he saw red before the attack and remembered hitting the woman repeatedly but could not be sure that he sexually assaulted her, according to a criminal complaint. Brandon A. Thompson, 26, was ordered held on $1 million bail Thursday on charges of first-degree sexual assault causing great bodily harm, first-degree reckless injury, and strangulation and suffocation in the attack on the woman as she was walking home Sunday sometime after 2:30 a.m. in the 500 block of West Wilson Street. DNA evidence also links him to the victim, according to the complaint.
It was one of the most horrific sexual assaults in recent memory here in Dane County, Dane County Deputy District Attorney William Brown said during Thompsons initial hearing. The woman, who is in her 20s, was found naked, covered in blood and unconscious after the attack, according to the criminal complaint, and later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, multiple lacerations and broken teeth, a broken jaw and two swollen eyes. She is currently on a feeding tube and unable to provide a statement as she shows extreme signs of confusion when awake, the complaint says, and was put into a medically induced coma immediately after the attack. Brown asked that bail be set at $2 million Thursday, saying that the attack was especially egregious because it was random.
What weve learned in the course of the last 72 hours ... is that this defendant was simply driving down the street and saw the victim, had no prior interaction or contact with the victim, and spontaneously decided to pull his car over, most of this occurring on camera, follow her for some distance around the Downtown area, and then attack her, Brown said. Thompsons attorney, Emily Bell, noted that her client has no prior criminal record, is a college graduate and resident of Dane County, and that his defense team has uncovered some evidence that is inconsistent with the states narrative. She asked for $10,000 bond.
Thompson appeared for the hearing via video from a cell in the Dane County Jails segregation unit, sometimes lightly shaking his head as Brown laid out the allegations against him.
https://madison.com/news/local/crime-courts/brandon-thompson-student-assault/article_4006070c-4d9b-11ee-a9fe-8f98352a9bb0.html