Police: Iowa Party Predator Assaulted Drunk Man

APRIL 7--An inebriated partygoer who thought his girlfriend was performing a sex act upon him was actually being molested by an Iowa man who is now facing a sexual abuse charge, records show.

According to investigators, DNA evidence links defendant Kyle Ahrens, 20, to the assault of the victim, an Illinois college student who was attending a party at the Iowa City apartment his girlfriend shares with Ahrens and other roommates.

Ahrens, seen at right, last month pleaded not guilty to the felony count. Free on bond, he is scheduled for trial on August 10.

As detailed in police and court records, the victim “admitted that he had drank quite a bit and was intoxicated” when his girlfriend took him into a bedroom so that he could rest. The man recalled his girlfriend “laying with him until he fell asleep.”

The victim told police that his next memory was “his pants being pulled down and someone starting to perform oral sex on him,” adding that he kept his eyes closed and “thought it was his girlfriend performing oral sex on him, so he let it continue.”

Thereafter, the victim said, he heard the bedroom door open and saw what appeared to be a flash from a cellphone photo being taken by a male with a beard who was backing out of the room.

When the victim awoke the following morning, his girlfriend said that she “was not the one performing oral sex,” and that the description of the bearded man matched Ahrens, one of her roommates. Ahrens, a search warrant application states, arrived at the apartment around the time that the woman was putting the victim to sleep in another roommate’s bedroom.

Upon being confronted by cops, Ahrens denied sexual contact with the victim, and claimed that he “blacked out due to drinking too much and doesn’t remember anything from the night of the incident.” But Ahrens was certain that there was “no reason his DNA would be on the victim or his clothing,” according to a criminal complaint.

However, lab tests on the victim’s underwear returned a DNA profile that matched Ahrens, triggering his arrest for sexual abuse. In addition to getting a search warrant to obtain DNA, police also received court permission to seize Ahrens’s iPhone and search it for any photos or video of the victim.

If convicted of sexual abuse, Ahrens could face up to 10 years in prison. (3 pages)