Judge Denies Bail For Man Who Allegedly Raped Woman At Pittsburgh Hotel
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A judge denied bail for a man accused of raping a woman at a hotel on the North Shore last weekend.
Michael Cooper, 48, is facing five charges including rape, sexual assault, recklessly endangering another person, indecent assault and indecent exposure. KDKA was there Wednesday when he turned himself in.
Cooper, who was working maintenance at the Residence Inn by Marriott across from PNC Park, is accused of forcibly raping a guest in her room Sunday night.
According to the affidavit, shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday, Cooper performed some routine maintenance in the woman's room, and then sexually assaulted her, kissing her and fondling her breasts against her will.
The affidavit details him throwing the woman on the bed and raping her. The woman told police that she could not breathe and said this out loud to Cooper multiple times but he persisted.
Court records say he has a violent past. Cooper was convicted in the 1993 stabbing death of his then-girlfriend, 15-year-old Ovella Ramseur of Clairton.
According to an account in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Cooper called it an accident, but a jury convicted him of first-degree murder. He was 20 years old at the time and sentenced to seven to 20 years in prison.
Since his release, he has had other convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property and most recently simple assault for which he was given one year on probation a year ago. But despite this criminal record, he told his attorneys that he was never convicted of murder.
He faces a preliminary hearing on Aug. 12.
