AUBURN — A 57-year-old Auburn man was indicted this week, accused of raping a local woman, forcing her into prostitution and beating her with a gun, hammer and dinner plate in November.

Willie Minor, of 30 Lake St., was being held at the county jail on charges of gross sexual assault, aggravated sex trafficking, aggravated assault, violation of privacy, domestic assault and domestic terrorizing.

Police began investigating Minor in late November after a 45-year-old woman reported he forced her into prostitution before turning jealous and repeatedly beating her, at one point placing a belt around her neck and pulling it tight.

The woman told investigators that Minor created several Backpage.com accounts to advertise her services as a prostitute. She also said Minor instructed her on what sex acts she was to perform on clients and controlled the money she made through prostitution.

Minor, indicted Tuesday and arraigned on Friday, was ordered held at the Androscoggin County Jail on $10,000 cash bail.

According to a police affidavit, the woman told investigators that she met Minor in the early summer of 2016 while walking on Bates Street in Lewiston. Minor was looking for drugs, the woman told police. A short time later, Minor paid the woman for oral sex but then forced her to have intercourse, according to the affidavit.

The woman, homeless at the time, told police that Minor coerced her into a working relationship by offering money and a place to live. Soon, however, the relationship turned violent, according to the court document.

The woman told investigators that on Nov. 23, Minor accused her of being unfaithful. He threatened to kill her, she said, striking her with a gun and placing the belt around her neck.

The woman told Auburn police Detective Marshall W. McCamish and officer Bernice Westleigh that on Nov. 24, she awoke to find Minor standing above her with a hammer in his hand. Minor beat her in the back of the head with the hammer, she said, injuring her head and hand as she tried to ward off the blows. Days later, he punched her and broke a dinner plate over her head, according to the affidavit.

The woman told police that on Nov. 27, she attempted to flee Minor’s apartment but Minor snatched the phone out of her hand. She was afraid to leave, she said, because of Minor’s threats that he would kill her.

The woman told investigators that Minor’s home at 30 Lake St. had been used for prostitution involving several females, providing police with the names of two women, according to the affidavit.

After she was interviewed by police, the woman was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston where she was treated for injuries to her head, according to the affidavit.

“Shortly after Officer Westleigh and I cleared from CMMC, we were advised that Willie showed up to the emergency department and asked if (the woman) was there,” McCamish wrote in the affidavit. “He was turned away by staff.”

On Nov. 28, police stopped Minor’s car on Court Street in Auburn and later questioned him at the police station. A short time later, McCamish and Westleigh obtained a warrant to search Minor’s Lake Street home.

“The hammer was found under a pink chair in the living room,” McCamish wrote in the court document. “The broken dinner plate was found in the kitchen trash. A handgun with a partially loaded, inserted magazine was found in the bathroom cabinet. What appeared to be reddish brown stains were found on a comforter and on the wall above the futon located in the living room. The top floor bedroom was decorated around the bed with mirrors, and items associated with sex were found throughout the room. I also noticed that the bed in the top floor bedroom appeared to be similar to the bed captured in one of the images posted to one of (the woman’s) Backpage accounts.”

Minor, who has a criminal history of assaults and domestic violence in the Lewiston area, was arrested and taken to the county jail where he has remained since. Should he make bail, conditions set on Friday prohibit him from contacting the woman or her family members, possessing drugs or dangerous weapons, staying at hotels and motels and being inside a vehicle with any female he’s not related to.

Willie Minor