March 06--A woman identified by prosecutors as an escort testified Thursday that she was raped by a former boyfriend after he used a fake identity to evade her online screening process and then showed up at her home in a disguise that included a beard, dark makeup, sunglasses and a turban.
Testifying at a preliminary hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, the woman, 26, said she didn't realize the attacker was ex-boyfriend Nathan Nissenbaum until his sunglasses fell off while he restrained her with handcuffs and duct tape before the sexual assault.
She testified Nissenbaum threatened to kill himself during the Feb. 12 incident and warned that if she fought back he would kill her as well.
"He said if I tried to fight it was going to be a murder/suicide instead of just a suicide," she told Judge Laura Sullivan. "He told me he was going to cut my face with a razor blade so I could never work again."
Sullivan found probable cause to believe that Nissenbaum carried out the sexual assault, a step in the criminal process before a trial. He is contesting the charges.
The woman testified she had successfully obtained a restraining order against Nissenbaum after they broke off a year-long relationship last November and he continued to allegedly send her about 50 email and text messages a day.
The woman said she works as an escort and operates her business from her residence in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. She described how her screening process requires a scanned copy of an ID, employment information and references from other escorts. She said Nissenbaum passed with an elaborate fake identity, posing as Ricky Singh,.
She testified she met the man, who looked like the photo on his ID, outside her building at about 10:30 a.m. and that they went to her apartment. There, she said he distracted her in the bathroom and grabbed her from behind. When she struggled, he threatened her with the gun, then handcuffed her and bound her legs with duct tape, punched her in the her face, legs, stomach and choked her, she testified.
Nissenbaum then booked a stay at an Evanston bed-and-breakfast where he said he planned to torture and rape her before killing himself, she testified. He eventually unbound her legs and sexually assaulted her.
Later, she was able to get him to free her, and Nissenbaum decided he would kill himself in her bathtub since she wouldn't go with him to Evanston, according to her testimony. She testified she laughed with him in the bathroom, poured him a glass of whiskey and then, when she heard the shower turn on, grabbed her dog and fled the apartment.
She called 911 from a store across the street.
Nissenbaum, 33, allegedly cut himself with a razor in the bathtub and then set fire to the woman's bedding in the bathroom, hoping to kill himself, according to testimony.
Detective Mark DiMeo, who interviewed him in the hospital after the attack, said Nissenbaum admitted slapping the woman several times to get her to stop screaming and admitted he knew she had an active order of protection against him.
Nissenbaum, who records show lives in the 400 block of West Wrightwood Avenue, also admitted dying his beard black by using mascara, DiMeo testifed.
sschmadeke@tribune.com
