AUBURN — An Auburn man was charged with gross sexual assault this week after a woman he met on a dating app reported that a condom had fallen off during consensual sex.
Joseph Fusaro, 24, was charged after police spoke to the woman with whom he reportedly had sex with following a Tinder hookup in late April.
The woman, 31, claimed that although the sex was consensual, Fusaro finished the act knowing that the condom had fallen off, according to a court affidavit.
The affidavit said the woman told police she had met Fusaro, whom she knew only as “Joe,” on Tinder, and that two days later, the pair agreed to meet to watch a movie and to have sex at Fusaro’s apartment.
The woman “stated that she believed that they were going to ‘Netflix and chill,'” the affidavit said, “which in her mind meant that the pair were going to engage in sexual activities.”
Ultimately, the court document said, the pair did have intercourse.
The woman said the couple engaged in consensual sexual intercourse, with Joe using a condom, and that “Joe asked to take the condom off in the middle of having sex and she told him no,” the affidavit states. The woman said when the pair changed positions, “the condom was either removed by Joe or fell off.”
When she discovered what had happened, the woman told police, she immediately left the apartment and went to a drug store to buy the emergency contraceptive Plan B.
She later reported her claims to Auburn police, and an investigation began. The woman told police that she wanted to have a sexual assault medical kit performed and that she was willing to go to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for the test.
During an interview with police, the woman said she had been perfectly open to having sex with “Joe” and that she had brought condoms to the date.
Fusaro was interviewed by Auburn police Officer Steven R. Friedrich at his parents’ home in Lisbon, the affidavit said. There, Fusaro told police that he had kept the condom on when the woman denied his request to take it off. He added that the condom fell off accidentally at some point during sex.
When the pair discussed the matter, Fusaro advised the woman to get a Plan B pill or “to have his child,” the affidavit said. Soon after, the woman left and called police to report a gross sexual assault.
Friedrich arrested Fusaro at his parents’ home and took him to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
Friedrich wrote in his affidavit that the fact that Fusaro had finished the sex act after the condom had fallen off warranted the charge of gross sexual assault.
“This determination was made due to the numerous statements Joseph made prior and during the sexual contact in regards to utilizing and taking off a condom,” the officer wrote, “and due to the serious negative response endured by (the alleged victim) due to that non-consensual act.”
Fusaro was initially held without bail at the jail, but bail was later set at $2,060, and he was released.
IF YOU or someone you know has experienced sexual abuse, you can call Maine’s Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Line at 1-800-871-7741 to talk to someone who can help. You can learn more online here.
OR you can call National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or chat at online.rainn.org
