GRAVETTE — A Gravette man was in the Benton County Jail yet on Monday in connection with rape, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Benton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Lester Allen Fuller, 45, of 13000 Earl Road was being held after investigators from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office said Fuller tried to rape a woman who came to his residence after the two met on a social network website.

Wes Bryant, an investigator for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, said in the affidavit the woman had been chatting online with Fuller prior to the incident.

According to the affidavit, the woman arrived at Fuller’s residence near Gravette at about 7:30 p.m., April 30, and asked if she could spend a couple of days at Fuller’s residence.

Bryant states the woman told Fuller her boyfriend had been arrested and jailed.

The woman was standing outside the residence talking to Fuller and his brother, the affidavit states, when Fuller’s brother went back inside the residence.

The woman told investigators she began to feel like she should go spend time with her son, who was staying at a relative’s house in Oklahoma.

The affidavit states Fuller became angry as the woman started to leave, grabbed her, threw her on the ground beside the house and began undressing her and himself.

The woman screamed, according to the affidavit, and Fuller’s brother came out of the house, telling Fuller to stop.

The woman ran to her vehicle and left, according to the affidavit.

Bryant states in the affidavit Fuller would not set a time to talk to him about the incident, saying he was too busy with his work as a fence builder, but Fuller told Bryant he knew what the woman was claiming.

A Benton County deputy arrested Fuller on Jan. 28 as he was leaving a relative’s house near Gravette, Bryant said.

Bryant contacted Fuller’s brother, who helped corroborate the woman’s story, according to the affidavit. The woman also picked Fuller out of a photo lineup shown to her by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Bryant states in the affidavit.

The woman, who reported the incident to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office in Jay, Okla., told investigators she did not report the incident quickly because she was scared and felt like she had no one to go to, according to the affidavit.

Fuller was being held on a $29,000 bond.

News, Pages 2 on 02/08/2012