Details emerge about homeless man suspected in rape
A homeless man facing multiple charges after police allege he raped a mentally challenged Uniontown woman in Uniontown on Thursday has spent the better part of two decades in trouble with the law, court records indicate.
Uniontown police Patrolman Thomas Kolencik said Herbert Dale Conaway, 44, who had been residing at the homeless shelter in Uniontown, was charged Thursday with rape by force, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault. He said police captured Conaway Friday afternoon.
According to Kolencik, Conaway is wanted in at least three states on charges ranging from grand theft auto to fraud, and has a criminal history 48 pages long.
According to court documents, Conaway has spent time in prison in multiple states as well, including a stint in 2007 in Florida.
In that case, police in Pahrump charged Conaway with impersonating a police officer after he developed a scheme to use photographs of himself in a Florida Highway Patrol uniform to bilk money from a 22-year-old woman.
He was charged in Florida in 2006 with assault and battery for a separate incident.
His record in Fayette County includes charges dating back to the early 1990s.
According to court records, Conaway spent most of his time in prison from 1999 through 2003 on charges including theft and receiving stolen property.
And court records also indicate that as recently as this May Conaway was sentenced to one year of probation for a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle.
Kolencik said the rape and related charges were filed against Conaway after he raped a woman at a building owned by Habitat for Humanity on North Beeson Avenue on Thursday morning.
Kolencik said that the woman and Conaway were working as volunteers for Habitat for Humanity at the building, which was otherwise unoccupied, and that Conaway asked her to help him in an upstairs room between 10 a.m. and noon.
Kolencik said Conaway then forced himself on the woman and raped her despite her repeated protests.
He then told her that if she didn’t tell anyone about the incident, neither would he, Kolencik said.
HeraldStandard.com does not identify the alleged victims of sexual assault.
Police were able to gather evidence at the building as well as from the woman following the incident.
Conaway remains in Fayette County Prison on $125,000 straight cash bond.
He will face a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros at a later date.