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Sex Offender Charged in Bar Rape Had Threatened to Kill Woman: Prosecutors

By  Trevor Kapp and Gwynne Hogan | April 16, 2015 2:52pm | Updated on April 16, 2015 6:48pm

 Rodney Stover, who has prior arrests for rape, threatened to kill a woman before raping her in a bathroom of a Gramercy bar.
Rodney Stover, who has prior arrests for rape, threatened to kill a woman before raping her in a bathroom of a Gramercy bar.
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MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — The convicted sex offender charged in the Saturday rape of a woman inside the bathroom of a Gramercy bar told his victim he was going to kill her before a prolonged sexual attack, prosecutors said Thursday.

Rodney Stover, 48, pushed his way into a bathroom stall inside Turnmill on East 27th Street, near Lexington Avenue, around 7:45 p.m. Saturday and told a woman, “I will f—king kill you” and “I am going to rape you,” before repeatedly raping her, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

After the Saturday attack, the owners at Turnmill studied footage from numerous surveillance cameras that are installed in the bar, part-owner Tom Lucas said. 

On Wednesday morning, the owners were standing outside in front of the bar chatting when they noticed a man walk past who fit the suspect's description.

"That's the guy from Saturday night," Lucas told DNAinfo New York Thursday afternoon. "I followed him."

Lucas called the police and then trailed Stover west on 27th Street a few blocks until 7th Avenue where Stover headed north. Lucas then saw a police vehicle headed down the street and flagged it down, pointing out the suspect a few hundred feet away.

"He's off the street," Lucas said. "[But the victim] has to live with this for the rest of her life."

Stover, who had been convicted previously for rape and attempted assault, was held without bail after his arraignment on sexual abuse and predatory sexual assault charges. He pleaded not guilty.

Assistant District Attorney David Filer described Fowler as a "persistent, violent felon."

Prosecutors said Stover, who lives in a homeless shelter on 30th Street and First Avenue, was identified in a police lineup.

Stover tried to rape a topless dancer in her dressing room in 1989 in a Pittsburgh strip club and was convicted of attempted sexual assault, officials said. He served 14 months in jail then moved to Long Island in November of 1991 while still on parole in Pennsylvania, officials said.

He worked briefly as a tree trimmer there, Suffolk County officials said.

In 1993, Stover was convicted of rape in Suffolk County after he snuck into a woman's house on early on a summer morning, brandished a knife and raped and sodomized the 42-year-old while her children slept in another room, documents show and officials from the Suffolk County District Attorney said.

The woman eventually fended Stover off with two kitchen knives, and Stover fled the scene leaving his pants and wallet behind. The victim stabbed Stover in the leg as he fled, officials said.

He served the maximum sentence of 20 years and was released in July of 2012 from the upstate Great Meadows Correctional Facility, records show.

He racked up a host of disciplinary charges in lockup, including smuggling, disorderly conduct and creating a disturbance and was denied parole six time since 2002, state records show.

After he was released from prison in New York, he was rearrested and thrown in prison in Pennsylvania for a 1991 parole violation. He was released two months ago, correctional officials from Pennsylvania said. 

“Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” defense attorney Seth Gross said. “The charges in this case, while serious, are only charges at this point.”

Stover is due back in court April 21.