No bail for Lynn man charged with rape

LYNN – A judge ordered a city man held without bail Thursday after police said a woman wearing no pants ran into a 7-Eleven and said she’d been raped.”(The alleged victim) stated, ?I didn’t even care that I was naked, I just ran to get help,'” Essex Assistant District Attorney Erin Bellavia said in Lynn District Court Thursday, summarizing from a police report.Peter O. Molbeck, 45, of 328 Broadway #202, was arrested and charged with rape; witness intimidation; and assault and battery; at 8:27 a.m. Thursday. He was arraigned later that afternoon in Lynn District Court where a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.Lynn Police responded to the 7-Eleven on the Lynnway at 6:20 a.m. Thursday on a report of a hysterical female with no pants, Bellavia told the court.Bellavia said police met the alleged victim – 24, and described as crying, shaking, embarrassed and out of breath – who said she and her co-worker Molbeck were at a party in Everett the prior evening then went to the office to drink champagne and hang out.Bellavia said Molbeck first took the alleged victim’s phone and hid it after her boyfriend called.The defendant then allegedly professed his love for the alleged victim and began kissing her, holding her neck with his hands. He allegedly used his weight to hold the alleged victim down as he groped her. At one point, he poked the alleged victim in the eye but refused to stop although the alleged victim complained her eye hurt, Bellavia said.She said Molbeck then undressed the alleged victim and raped her with his finger. The alleged victim said she escaped when she told Molbeck she would have sex with him if he dimmed the lights, Bellavia said. Molbeck allegedly got up to do so, and the alleged victim escaped.Police reported recovering the woman’s clothes, underwear and phone from the office, where they also found Molbeck. Bellavia requested Molbeck be held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing.But court-appointed defense attorney Alice Jayne questioned probable cause for the hearing.Jayne said the party was the second time Molbeck had taken the alleged victim out Wednesday evening after the woman had called the defendant – whom she considered a friend – because she was upset with her boyfriend.Rather, Jayne suggested the alleged victim got scared her boyfriend might find out she had been with Molbeck.Jayne noted the boyfriend owns the business, Shamrock Entertainment – which Jayne described as a “stripping company that provides adult entertainment for parties” – where both the defendant and alleged victim work.Jayne also said there was no evidence to suggest any sexual contact was not consensual, and noted Molbeck did not flee the scene and “was just sitting there” when arrested.(A police report by Lynn Police Officer John Harkness says Molbeck was asleep in a chair beside two large knives and that the officer had to climb over a desk across the door to enter the room.)Judge Albert Conlon ruled there was probable cause to hold the defendant without bail pending a dangerousness hearing, which he scheduled for Jan. 16.