No Bail for Cross-Country Crime Spree Suspect

Gregory Lewis is suspected of committing a string of rapes, kidnappings and robberies of female escorts in North Carolina, Colorado and Oregon while he was on the run

A Massachusetts man accused of going on a cross-country crime spree after allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl had a gun, knives, zip ties and duct tape in his car and had been driving by the girl's house, police said during a recorded interview with the man.

Gregory Lewis, 26, of Southbridge, denied having physical contact with the girl in the August interview with Southbridge police.

"I am not going to answer that question," Lewis said, when a detective asked him what explanation he had for having the gun and other items in his car.

A video of the police interview with Lewis was released publicly Monday after Lewis was arraigned in Worcester Superior Court on 17 charges related to the alleged rape and an attack on his 67-year-old stepfather. Lewis pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail until a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Nov. 10.

In the interview, Lewis described meeting the girl after she prank called him with her friends in June. He said the girl visited his house twice, but said he only hugged her. He said she initially told him she was 22, then said she was 18. He said that when he found out she was 13, he stopped having contact with her.

In court documents released Monday, police said the girl said she initially told Lewis she was 22, but later told him she was 13. She said during two visits to his house, he digitally penetrated her.

Police around the country were looking for Lewis after authorities said he cut off his court-ordered electronic monitoring device in the rape case and fled Massachusetts.

During the next six weeks, police said, Lewis drove around the country, robbing and raping female escorts in Colorado, Oregon, North Carolina and other states.

On Monday, Massachusetts prosecutors filed a motion asking that Lewis be held pending trial based on their argument that he is a danger to the public. Attached to the motion were police reports from Colorado and Portland, Oregon, describing sexual assaults on escorts.

Prosecutors also released an audio recording of a call to Denver police by a man who identified himself as Lewis. The man demands that police remove an "ad" with his photo on its Crime Stoppers website.

He then becomes belligerent with the dispatcher, swearing at her and threatening to "snap" her neck if she doesn't put a supervisor on the phone with him.

"I didn't commit any of those crimes," he says, then continues to demand that police remove his photo from their website.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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