A Phoenix man faces multiple charges after he was found in a motel room with a woman who claimed that he had sexually abused her.
On June 16, Gallup Police Officer Aaron Marquez was dispatched to Motel 6, 3306 W. Hwy. 66 because of a domestic dispute. The motel manager had called the police after getting a call from Room 236. The manager said a female had called the front desk, and that she’d seemed intoxicated and wanted someone removed from the room.
When Marquez initially knocked on the door, there was no response. After he knocked a few more times, a man who was later identified as Brandon Joe, 30, from Phoenix, Ariz., answered the door in boxers. Because the call was about a domestic dispute, Marquez asked Joe to step out of the room.
Once Joe was out of the room, Marquez stepped inside. According to his report, Marquez noticed a woman sitting on one of the beds in the room covering herself with a sheet. Marquez also noticed clothes scattered around the room and multiple bottles of liquor by the T.V.
The woman told Marquez that she was the one who had called the police because Joe “was being abusive.” She said that Joe had stolen her phone and would not let her leave.
While Marquez was speaking to the alleged victim, Joe was outside the room telling other officers that the two of them had just been having sex. When Joe spoke, Marquez noticed that the woman would stop speaking and put her head down. The woman repeatedly told Marquez that she was scared and that she didn’t want to say too much.
Marquez tried to reassure the woman that she was safe, and she told him that Joe had taken all of her clothes. The woman began crying and told Marquez that she had tried to leave but Joe wouldn’t let her.
According to Marquez’s report, the woman had gotten the motel room and Joe had come with her. The victim said she’d tried to call people to have them pick her up, but Joe threw her phone, which left it broken.
Marquez could tell that the victim was truly terrified of Joe. She kept telling the officer that she was too scared to say anything. She told Marquez “You have no idea what he is capable of.” She stated that Joe “knows people.”
At one point while Marquez was trying to reassure the victim, she said, “I will be safe for tonight but won’t be safe for the rest of my life because he’s crazy and he knows people.” She said that if Joe couldn’t hurt her, he would find people who could.
The woman finally explained that she’d invited Joe to the motel room because she was scared to stay in it alone. She explained that Joe had disconnected the phone initially, but she reconnected it and called the front desk because she was scared.
Marquez asked the victim if Joe had sexually assaulted her, and the woman said he had. She also said he choked her, and in his report, Marquez noted that the victim did have bruising on her neck.
The victim continued to cry and blame herself. She told Marquez that she’d been sexually assaulted on the bed.
She said that the two of them had been drinking, but at one point she stopped and Joe continued.
At first the woman refused medical help, but Marquez was eventually able to convince her to let him drive her to the Gallup Indian Medical Center.
While she was at the hospital, the victim explained that Joe had gotten upset when he saw that she was talking to other men when he was going through her phone. That’s when he broke her phone.
The woman also said that Joe had allegedly ripped her clothes off of her, thrown her in the shower, and sexually assaulted her in there. The woman said she was sexually assaulted multiple times before she was able to make the call to the police.
Joe was charged with second degree rape, aggravated battery against a household member, false imprisonment, interference with communication, and criminal damage to property of a household member. His preliminary examination is on June 29.
Staff Reports
