Sex offender held on bond for rape charges
Roberts
By RALPH BARTHOLDT
A Washington sex offender is behind bars for allegedly attempting to rape the mother of his child in Coeur d’Alene last week.
Jeremy L. Roberts, 39, is being held on a $100,000 bond for two felonies including rape and forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object.
Roberts appeared Monday in Coeur d’Alene magistrate court where Magistrate Judge Robert Burton appointed a public defender, set bond, put in place a no-contact order between Roberts and the alleged victim and ordered a preliminary hearing be set within 14 days.
Roberts, who served more than 10 years in prison for injury to child and a rape conviction, was released from prison in 2015 after serving an additional two years for a parole violation in 2012, according to the Idaho Dept. of Corrections.
Coeur d’Alene Police said Roberts visited the 38-year-old mother of his child May 5 at a Coeur d’Alene residence where he forced her to engage in sex in a carport until she escaped his grasp.
The woman reported the incident after notifying her boyfriend who urged her to call authorities.
When Roberts was arrested Friday on the felony warrant he was additionally charged with DUI, according to records at the Kootenai County Jail.
Roberts told the court Monday that if he was released on bond he could stay with his grandparents in Coeur d’Alene, who “attend church regularly, are part of the Eagles … (and who) have lived here for over 60 years.”
Prosecutors asked for a high bond in the case because of Roberts’ extensive criminal history.
According to prosecutors, Roberts is a registered sex offender in Washington.
Roberts told the court that if he is released he could work for his brother-in-law.
“I would actually have a job,” he said.
Roberts and the alleged victim have a 17-year-old child together, according to court records. Roberts is being held in the Kootenai County Jail.