Apr 4, 2002 By Jennifer Harr 4 min read

A woman took the stand Wednesday in Fayette County Court to tell jurors how Jason Christopher Hatter allegedly abducted and then sexually assaulted her. The 22-year-old woman told the six-man, six-woman panel that she was walking to her Dunbar home from Pechin Shopping Village on May 28, 2001, taking the route she always took, when she noticed a red Ford Probe driving back and forth.

And when she stopped to light a cigarette near a large pile of gravel, the driver of the car pulled up next to her, blocking her escape. Then, she testified, Hatter grabbed her right wrist and pulled her over his lap and into the vehicle.

They drove and he took her to a place with which she was unfamiliar, “drug me out of the car, took me past a creek to a tree,” she testified.

She told jurors that Hatter shoved her against the tree, she hit her head and he began to sexually accost her, requesting she perform a sex act on him. When the woman refused, she testified, Hatter grabbed her breasts and then exposed himself to her.

Hatter, 23, of 192 Morrell Road, Dunbar, is charged with kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, indecent assault and indecent exposure.

State police criminal investigator Thomas B. Broadwater filed the charges and identified the place Hatter allegedly took the woman as Green Street, at the entrance of Green Hill Motor Home Park in Dunbar Township.

Fearing for her life, the tried to escape once Hatter had her outside the car, she said.

“He caught me and dragged me back to the car. Then he drove me around more and dropped me off,” she added under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Phyllis A. Jin. “I was screaming, but there was no one around who could have heard me.”

The woman said that after Hatter dropped her off, she made her way home to her mother and father and told them to call the police because of what had happened.

Under questioning from Assistant Public Defender Mary Campbell Spegar, the woman testified that she did not know Hatter from any prior encounters, denied having asked him for a ride and also said she never offered to have sex with him in the past.

Hatter was arrested the day after the alleged assault. According to the affidavit filed in the case, he told police that he did give the woman a ride, but it was at her request. He also told Broadwater that the woman had asked him to drive to the remote area and after a walk, they started to kiss.

Hatter reportedly told police that he did ask the woman for sex, but she refused, so they left and he dropped her off along Hardy Hill Road in Dunbar.

Broadwater, as well as defense witnesses, are expected to take the stand this morning.

Jin and Campbell Spegar will also await a ruling from Judge Steve P. Leskinen as to whether other, unrelated indecent assault charges filed against Hatter will be heard as evidence in this case.

Police filed 17 indecent exposure charges against Hatter for allegedly exposing himself to a bus driver and 16 members of the California Area High School girls’ softball team last May 7. In that matter, Hatter allegedly pulled alongside the bus as it was traveling near the Laurel Mall on Route 119 and exposed himself.

He also faces charges of picking up a woman walking along Easy Street in Uniontown, assaulting her and then asking her to have sex. Police allege he touched the woman before she was able to exit his vehicle.

He is charged with indecent exposure, indecent assault and disorderly conduct in that matter.

Leskinen asked the two attorneys to present their arguments as to whether those crimes should be admitted as evidence no later than 8:15 a.m. today.