The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

December 16, 2009

UPDATE: Accused rapist is free on bond

By Matt Snyder

MERCER COUNTY — A West Pittsburg man accused of luring a real estate agent to an empty Jefferson Township house and raping her June 11 is free on bond.

Michael R. Tackett, 38, had his bond reduced Thursday from $200,000 to $100,000 by Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed after his defense attorney Thomas W. Leslie called the initial amount excessive.

Assistant Mercer County District Attorney Ryan Bonner said Tackett testified Thursday that he required medical attention due to back surgery, and that he couldn’t get it through the Mercer County Jail.

Tackett posted bail Friday. He is ordered not to have contact with the woman he allegedly raped. He has denied the allegations against him, according to court documents.

“Obviously, we were disappointed and alarmed that he bonded out,” said state police trooper Dan Sindlinger.

He said Tackett is potentially dangerous and may have a pattern of targeting real estate agents, and warned them not to show homes alone.

Tackett was charged with rape in 2003 and 2005 in Lawrence County and acquitted both times, according to published reports.

Tackett faces charges of rape, intimidating witnesses, aggravated indecent assault, making terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, possessing a weapon, and sexual assault.

Authorities said Tackett met the woman during a real estate open house. About a week and half later she was showing him a house on Seidle Road when police say he pinned her down, told her he had a gun and raped her repeatedly.

Tackett threatened to kill the woman. He ordered her to answer questions about her family, recited her address, and threatened to kill her and her family if she reported the incident, police said.

Tackett used a fake name when he contacted the woman but she found a photo on the state’s Megan’s Law sex offender registry that looked similar to the man she said raped her, police said.

A Neshannock Township policeman saw the picture, which was not Tackett’s. He realized it looked like Tackett, with whom he’d dealt before.

The policeman showed the woman Tackett’s picture, and she confirmed it was him.

Leslie is trying to have that identification, and any subsequent courtroom identifications of Tackett suppressed in the case. He said showing the picture outside a lineup was “unduly suggestive.” A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6 on that motion.

In a later state police lineup, the woman said she was “100 percent sure” it was Tackett who raped her, police said.

She also identified Tackett’s car, and was able to point it out from a block away while driving through West Pittsburg with her husband, police said.

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