Florida transient arrested for Portland rape, beating

PORTLAND – A drifter from Florida was jailed on $100,000 bail after being charged with attacking and raping a woman he had struck up a conversation with on a Portland street.

Brandon Drewry, 42, is accused of dragging a 21-year-old woman into a small, wooded area and choking her until she was unconscious.

He then allegedly beat and sexually assaulted her for several hours late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, police said.

The woman told police she had been walking near the post office on Forest Avenue at about 11 p.m. Monday when she struck up a conversation with a man she did not know.

They walked together part way down Brattle Street when the man grabbed her and dragged her into a wooded area along some unused railroad tracks, she said.

The area, between the post office and a boarded up storage building, is littered with beer bottles and cans along with other debris, signs it is used as a drinking spot by the homeless.

The woman told police that the man threatened to maim her with broken glass, and police said he cut her legs with shards of glass.

At some point after 4 a.m. Tuesday, the woman crawled away and made her way to her nearby home where family members called for help.

The woman was treated at Maine Medical Center Tuesday for two black eyes, a broken eye socket, cracked ribs and a fractured jaw, but she was expected to recover from her injuries, officials said.

“This guy is an animal. Hopefully he doesn’t get out on the streets for a long period of time,” Police Chief Michael Chitwood said. “The woman is lucky to be alive today.”

Drewry told police he had been in town only a few days and produced a Florida identification card.