Victim Recalls Ordeal At Hands Of Lorenzo
Published: Jan 29, 2006
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TAMPA - Until Friday, he was known only as Victim No. 1 in the torture-and-rape case against Steven Lorenzo.
But Albert Perkins, 35, of Massachusetts, wants people to know he has no reason to hide.
On Friday, he shed the anonymity traditionally bestowed by the media upon sexual assault victims. He stepped to a bank of television cameras and told a cluster of reporters he was glad to see Lorenzo sentenced to 200 years in prison for giving a date-rape drug at different times to nine men, two of whom Lorenzo is suspected of killing.
"I hope he has to sleep with one eye open at all times," Perkins said.
Later, after hearing a federal judge decry the "chamber of horrors" Lorenzo made of his Seminole Heights home, Perkins explained why he went public. "I wasn't leaving today with my tail between my legs," Perkins said. "I thought it was important to keep my head high. I didn't do anything wrong."
Neither did he want people to think that because he is gay, he was part of Lorenzo's sadomasochistic world. "I'm proud of who I am, and it had no bearing on what happened," he said.
"I think Albert's coming forward is incredibly courageous, and a rarity, if not a first," said Brian Winfield, a spokesman for Equality Florida, a gay advocacy group. "It's been part of our concern that people have the impression that all of these victims were part of a strange underworld, when the vast majority of them were abducted against their will and tortured and raped."
His Time In Court
Before he went before the television cameras, Perkins addressed Lorenzo in court: "I hope each time you wake up to face a new day, you will hear the screams of all your victims. I hope you feel the fear as we did, as we begged and pleaded for mercy."
Perkins said he worked on that statement for weeks. Even though friends and family worried about whether he should put himself through the ordeal of going to court, Perkins said it was important to speak. "I knew in order to get some closure, I had to face him and say what I had to say. Otherwise it would be on my mind for the rest of my life."
When Perkins spoke at the sentencing, Lorenzo chuckled and shook his head.
"Looking at him today, I saw a deranged monster," Perkins said later. "I think his eyes showed it. ... The way he was laughing and rocking and shaking his head, he looked mentally ill to me."
It was not the first time Perkins confronted Lorenzo. Years after his February 2000 assault, he saw Lorenzo's Internet screen name pop up.
"I know the truth, and so do you," Perkins wrote in an instant message. "You're a rapist."
"You're a mess," Lorenzo responded. "You're just a bitter queen."
Investigators later seized a printout of that conversation during a search of Lorenzo's home, which also turned up hundreds of pages of Internet chats in which Lorenzo plotted other kidnappings, rapes and torture sessions.
The online confrontation "helped me get it off my chest," Perkins said.
Testifying during Lorenzo's trial also was surprisingly therapeutic because it gave him an opportunity to talk about what happened, Perkins said. "I think this trial has kind of helped me a lot more than I thought it would," he said. Detectives and a federal agent worked with him through the ordeal. "Their concern and how they handled me was just exactly what I needed."
An Initial Brushoff
Police weren't so supportive six years ago, Perkins said. Two days after his assault, back home in Massachusetts, he called Tampa police.
Two different officers brushed him off, he said. The second one said, "I'll look his name up and see if he has any prior record," Perkins recalled. She added, "Your comment is down. If what you say is true, you're going to hear his name again."
Perkins continued, "I remember saying, 'You will hear his name again.' "
Perkins, a restaurant manager, was visiting the Tampa area in February 2000 on a working vacation, tending bar. He said he went out one night looking to link up with some friends. He knew many people and had seen Lorenzo in some of his social circles.
That night, Lorenzo seemed to pop up everywhere Perkins was. Finally, at the Metropolis nightclub, Perkins said, he made arrangements with the bartender to meet up at a party but didn't know the location. He said Lorenzo volunteered to help him find it. Lorenzo invited him to his house for a drink on the way.
Perkins agreed and, driving his mother's car, followed Lorenzo to his Seminole Heights bungalow. Inside, Lorenzo poured him a glass of wine. It tasted strange, pungent, as if it had been left opened too long.
A Terrifying Ordeal
Perkins passed out. When he awoke, he was naked with his hands tied behind his back and his feet bound. There was a rope around his neck and, at the beginning, duct tape on his eyes and mouth. For hours, he said, Lorenzo beat and tortured him.
Perkins said he fought and screamed, begging Lorenzo to stop. The more he fought, the more sexually aroused Lorenzo became. Lorenzo looked deranged, Perkins said. "You couldn't even see his pupils."
Eventually, Perkins said, he forced himself to calm down. He stopped fighting and tried to reason with Lorenzo. He reminded him that the bartender had seen them leave together and that his mother's car was in Lorenzo's driveway.
Lorenzo stopped beating him, he said. "I think he got tired." Lorenzo untied him.
"I stayed calm and was putting my clothes on," he said. "It seemed like the longest time ever. I walked out."
He was bruised and sore. He had cuts on his neck and wrists. There were pinch marks on his body.
After police brushed him off, Perkins said, he didn't pursue the matter further. Then one day, five years later, a detective called his father, who has the same name, to talk about Lorenzo. The detective made up a story about stolen property and got Perkins' phone number from his father. The next day, Perkins said, a reporter from The Tampa Tribune called his father, mistaking him for Lorenzo's victim, and told him what had happened. His father hadn't known.
It was a difficult time, Perkins said, but his family is strong, and that wound has healed.
"For me, this whole ordeal has made me face things, pushed me into it," Perkins said. "I wished I could have dealt with it on my own time and terms." Just when that would have been, "I honestly don't know. ... I fully intended to bring it to light. It never seemed to be an appropriate time."
BY THE NUMBERS
• 1.4 per 1,000 men have been sexually assaulted, compared with 6 per 1,000 women.
•The number of sexual assaults for male victims in 2004 was 6,200 compared with 203,680 for female victims.
•Most research agrees that women are more willing to acknowledge psychological distress after an attack than men.
• One study found that 94 percent of male victims had post-traumatic stress disorder shortly after rape, and 47 percent continued to have the disorder after three months.
• 1-800-656-HOPE is the phone number for the National Sexual Abuse Hotline.
