SALEM – A Saugus man who allegedly stole approximately $400 from a Burger King on Route 1 last winter at knifepoint was one of two men indicted Friday afternoon by an Essex County grand jury.John Rosenthal, 61, of 1529 Broadway, Saugus, is charged with armed robbery while masked in connection with the Jan. 11 holdup at the Burger King on Route 1 in Saugus.According to reports, it was around 8 p.m. when a man wearing a black knit ski mask walked into the side entrance of the Burger King, located at 1449 Broadway, wielding a black folding knife and ordered all the employees to the floor. He grabbed the cash from the three registers, then herded all the employees to the restaurant’s freezer and ordered them to remain in there as he fled from the scene.Rosenthal, who walked with a limp, was spotted a day later by an employee walking nearby the fast food restaurant and was taken into custody around 11 a.m.The indictments handed up now move the case from Lynn District Court, where Rosenthal has pleaded innocent, to Salem Superior Court where he will be re-arraigned within a few weeks.Assistant District Attorney Michael Sheehan is prosecuting the case for the state.Also indicted was Robert Weibel, 26, of 7 Island Trail, Sparta, N.J., charged with rape in connection with a sexual assault in Marblehead on June 27.According to reports, Weibel was a guest at a wedding in Marblehead.Following the reception, he attended a barbecue on Kimball Street in Marblehead, where he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman as she was sleeping in her bed.The victim told authorities she awoke and found the suspect raping her.She immediately pushed him away, ran out of the second-floor bedroom and told her boyfriend, who then called police.Weibel first denied being at the after party to police, but then changed his story, denying that he had the sexual encounter with the woman.A conviction on the charge carries up to 20 years in state prison.Indictments are not an indication of guilt: rather it is a legal process that allows a case to be transferred from District Court to Superior Court, allowing a more severe punishment.
