Dating site hookup gone wrong leads to rape charge

A 24-year-old man was charged last week in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with raping a Port Washington woman he communicated with on dating and social media apps and met for the first time on the night of the May 1 attack at her home.

Anthony C. Delyea Jr. of Cottage Grove is charged with second-degree sexual assault and strangulation and suffocation, both felonies.

During a July 12 hearing, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams set bail for Delyea at $100,000.

The woman reported the sexual assault almost immediately, but it took authorities time to track Delyea down because the woman knew him only by his first name.

According to a criminal complaint, a Port Washington police officer who was called to the woman’s home at 1:12 a.m. Friday, May 1, arrived to find her crying. She said she communicated with Delyea via Tinder and Snapchat and met him for the first time just more than an hour earlier when he drove to Port Washington from the Madison area.

The woman said Delyea arrived at her home at 11:40 p.m. and they were lying in her bed when she asked him if he had a condom. He said he didn’t, and after she told him she would not have sex with him without one, Delyea sexually assaulted her, the complaint states.

The woman said she told Delyea to stop but he didn’t. She said he pushed on her upper collar bone and held her down by the neck, making it difficult for her to breathe, while she pushed, kicked and scratched him, according to the complaint.

At one point, Delyea flipped her over and drove her head into pillows as he continued to assault her, again making it difficult for her to breathe. The woman said she tried to scream, hoping her neighbors would hear her and come to help, the complaint states.

When Delyea stopped assaulting her, the woman said, she ran into the bathroom. When she came out, Delyea was still at her house and said “sorry” before she told him to leave.

The officer noted the woman’s neck was red and she had scratches on her back and other parts of her body.

The woman said Delyea left at 12:22 a.m. — a time she remembered because it was when she tried to call a friend — and she immediately attempted to look at his Tinder and Snapchat accounts to get more information about him, but Delyea had already blocked her from accessing his accounts, according to the complaint.

The woman said Delyea’s Snapchat user name was “buggalob” and that his account also listed the name Anthony with an image of a Christian cross.

Lt. Ryan Hurda obtained records from Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, for the “buggalob” account and retrieved an email address, date of birth and phone number of the owner.

Records also showed that at 12:18 a.m. May 1, the victim was blocked from the account.

Other records obtained from Snap Inc. included selfies of a man who matched the description of Delyea provided by the victim and a photo used to identify Delyea at his place of employment, the complaint states.

Other photos on Delyea’s Snapchat account included photos of two cars, one of which was a Honda Civic that was consistent with the description provided by the woman of the car he drove to her house. The photos also matched images of a car captured on video from her neighbor’s house arriving at 11:40 p.m. and leaving at 12:18 a.m., the complaint states.

Hurda reviewed Flock automated license plate camera footage and found that the Civic was recorded at 12:52 a.m. May 1 heading west on I-94 in Waukesha County, which would have been the fastest route from Port Washington to his home.

Second-degree sexual assault is punishable by a maximum 25 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision. Strangulation and suffocation is punishable by a maximum three years in prison and three years of extended supervision.