A State College man was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for attempting to strangle a woman he arranged to meet at a Centre Region motel last fall.
Robert C. Wason, 39, was sentenced by Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine to 18 months to four years in state prison, according to court records. He received credit for 190 days already served in county jail since his arrest.
Wason pleaded guilty on March 7 to a felony count of attempted strangulation. Charges including rape, sexual assault, robbery and impersonating a public servant were dropped, and three other charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and strangulation were dismissed at a preliminary hearing in October.
The woman told police on Sept. 30 that Wason responded to her online advertisement for bachelor parties and private dances and instructed her to request a room at the Nittany Budget Motel in Ferguson Township that would be away from the other guests. After she gave him a lap dance, Wason told her that he was police and handcuffed her, then raped her and attempted to suffocate her with a pillow, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
She said she was able to get one hand free and began punching him, then was able to get to the door and leave, running and yelling for help.
The woman had red marks and swelling around her wrists, consistent with struggling to free herself from the handcuffs, as well as scrapes and cuts, according to the affidavit. Her purse, which contained her cell phone, were found in a nearby field.
An investigation identified Wason as the suspect and after learning officers were looking for him, he asked to speak with a detective to “clear things up,” Ferguson Township police wrote.
Wason told police that he arranged to meet the woman, paid her for the hotel room and had consensual sex with her, according to the complaint. He claimed the woman started doing drugs, at which point he decided to leave and took back the money he gave her for the room.
He alleged she began hitting and biting him and claimed he defended himself by holding her down on the bed. He put the the pillow over her face, he told police, because he didn’t want to bother people in other rooms, according to the affidavit.
Wason denied claiming that he was a police officer, using handcuffs and disposing of her cell phone, police wrote.
A search of his vehicle found handcuffs that appeared to have blood residue on them, according to the affidavit.
