Johnson County sheriff’s deputy recalls terrifying night of kidnapping, rape

She was just steps away from one of the most secure buildings in Johnson County when a man she didn’t know approached her and asked for directions.

The man punched the Johnson County sheriff’s deputy on the side of the head and continued to punch her. He forced her into a car, where a driver awaited them, and got into the backseat with her.

The driver then sped them away to what would become a terrifying blitz of rape and sodomy.

On Thursday, the 22-year-old deputy — who had been on the job only four months — recounted what she endured last October at a preliminary hearing for two men charged in the crime.

William Luth, 25, of Blue Springs, and Brady Newman-Caddell, 21, of Independence, are each charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sodomy and two counts of rape.

Johnson County District Court Judge Brenda Cameron ruled there was enough evidence to take both men to trial. She set their next court appearance for March 29.

The deputy was on her way to work Oct. 7 when she was abducted from outside the Johnson County Detention Center in Olathe.

At Thursday’s hearing at the courthouse across the street from where she was abducted, she testified that during the attack, the men referred to each other by name. The first attacker went by Will; the man who was driving the car was called Brady, she testified.

As the car drove off, the man who had punched her and forced her into the car wrapped her sweatshirt around her face, she testified.

“Cooperate,” he told her. “I have a sharp, shiny object,” she testified that he said. She understood him to mean a knife.

The man took off her clothes, raped her and then sodomized her.

The deputy couldn’t estimate how long the attack carried on. At some point, the car stopped and the men switched places.

The original driver got in the backseat with her, leaned up close to her ear and said, “Did he hurt you? I’m sorry. I’m going to get you out of here,” she testified.

She then felt something penetrate her.

As they continued driving, the original attacker, who was now driving, said, “Hey, let’s switch again,” she testified, but the man in the back said, “No, we’re done. I have to go to work early in the morning.”

One of the men asked her if she was going to report it, she testified.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” she said she answered.

The men talked about wiping her off. The driver said, “All I’ve got is some Armor All.”

They poured it on her body.

The man in the backseat helped her get dressed. They stopped the car and told her to get out. She pulled the sweatshirt off her face, but the car was too far off to see the license plate.

She spotted a water tower with “Lee’s Summit” on it.

Two sheriff’s cars passed her, but they didn’t see her as she tried to flag them down.

She kept walking until she saw a sign for the Jackson County sheriff’s office. She went in and asked for help.

An analyst for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office testified that DNA testing linked both men to evidence found on the deputy’s body. Her DNA was found in a car that was registered to Luth’s wife.

Investigators with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office also testified that the deputy’s identification card was later found in a backpack Newman-Caddell had with him when he was arrested.

Investigators also found in the car registered to Luth’s wife the deputy’s watch and underwear like the ones she was wearing the night of the attack, according to testimony.

Newman-Caddell is also charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with raping a woman in Independence last February.

Luth is not charged in that case.

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Johnson County sheriff’s deputy recalls terrifying night of kidnapping, rape."