Nashville Man Arrested for Bridgestone Arena Rape

NASHVILLE, TN — Saturday, Metro Police arrested a convicted sex offender for the Thursday night rape of a fellow Bridgestone Arena cleaning crew member.

Investigators say Cleotha Washington, 51, forced his 49-year-old victim into a bathroom while both were part of a cleaning crew following Thursday night's Nashville Predators game and assaulted her for nearly an hour before fleeing. Washington is on the state's sex offender registry following a 2008 conviction in Iowa for assault with the intent to commit sexual abuse.

Both Washington and his victim were working as temporary labor for arena subcontractor Command Center. In a statement, Jim Burnett, chief development officer for SMS Holdings, the arena contractor who hired Command Center, said Command Center did not follow agreed-upon procedures.

"It is our policy to complete background checks on all of our employees. If an applicant's past criminal history would place others at risk, we won't hire them, period. The law requires us to consider criminal history on a case by case basis, and to consider the nature of the crime committed and the nature of the job to be done. We expect the same of any subcontractors we use for providing temporary labor and have made that clear. Local branch management of subcontractor Command agreed to our policy of background checking employees, and we had every reason to believe that all temporary labor being provided had gone through this process. We have decided to terminate this relationship. Moving forward, any staffing service utilized by our company to supplement labor will be required contractually to not only conduct a background check, but to verify they have done so on each temp candidate," he said.

The identity of the victim was disclosed by WSMV, who then did an interview with her, after, according to Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson, a reporter at the station was sent an unredacted copy of the initial police report while the search for Washington was ongoing. This disclosure resulted in a strongly worded statement from Anderson, posted on Facebook Monday.

Anderson says Ken Whitehouse, the spokesman for District Attorney-General Glenn Funk, delivered the report in its entirety to Channel 4 and a reporter "prominently displayed the report...containing the name, address and other personal information of this victim, the details of the attack and the identity of the perpetrator."

"It is my understanding that the sole reason Whitehouse accessed this report was to turn it over to Channel 4 News. Certainly Whitehouse had no business purpose in making this report public. In fact, Whitehouse had no business purpose in accessing the report for any reason. Any attempt to explain the motivation of Whitehouse would only be speculation. However, viewed in its best possible light, the actions of Whitehouse were irresponsible, unconscionable, a violation of the trust this victim placed in the criminal justice system and a violation of the public trust," Anderson wrote. "In making that very difficult decision as to whether to report a sexual assault, no victim of sexual assault should have to fear that their personal information will be immediately released to the public and that a reporter will show up at their doorstep within a few hours."

Anderson says he was told Whitehouse would remain employed at the DA's office, but "he should not be in any position wherein he has access to sensitive information."

"Upon learning of this breach of trust, Whitehouse’s computer access to the electronic record files of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department was immediately terminated. That access will NOT be restored—ever. Additionally, I have sent an advisory to supervisory personnel in the Police Department to never discuss with Whitehouse any sensitive information or otherwise allow him access to any sensitive information," Anderson said.

Patch does not disclose the identity of sexual assault victims.

Image via Metro Police