Easton Staircase Rape Case Headed to Court

A former Easton man is headed to Northampton County Court for allegedly raping a woman on one of the public staircases on the South Side last year.

In a hearing Thursday before District Judge Daniel Corpora, that woman testified that Quadree Dixon and another man held her down and sexually assaulted her last summer.

The attack last 10 minutes, the woman said, and ended only after she managed to scare Dixon and the other man off.

"I kept trying to tell them someone was coming up the stairs to meet me, and they finally let me go," she said.

Her answers were blunt, often just coming in the form of nods and head shakes and sometimes given through tears. But her testimony was enough for Corpora to rule that there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial. His formal arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 19.

Dixon, 22, had been in state prison on drug charges when he was arrested last month for the rape, which police say happened Aug. 1, 2012 on the steps leading from Smith Street to Lachenour Avenue.

He is charged with with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, simple assault and indecent assault.

According to testimony Thursday, the woman was walking home from a night out in Phillipsburg to her home on Easton's South Side when she encountered four men near the steps.

She testified that two of them followed her, held her down, and raped her, as she attempted to fight them off. After telling them someone was coming to meet her, they ran off. Police have yet to identify the other man.

The woman testified she ran home and told her roommates what happened.
They called police, and the woman went to the hospital, where doctors performed a rape kit. Police have said DNA evidence from the rape kit matched Dixon's DNA, although Dixon initially denied any contact with the woman.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Phil Lauer asked the woman for more details about the attack. At one point, Dixon whispered to Lauer, who then asked how long Dixon's hair had been at the time of the rape.

The woman said it was shorter, but styled the same way it appeared Thursday.

Lauer offered called no witnesses and offered no evidence, and said any argument in the case "will be made elsewhere."

Dixon is already in state prison on drug charges, and appeared in court Thursday wearing a brownish-red DOC jumpsuit.

Last September, he was arrested after police found marijuana, a scale and packaging material in his house. Officers had been on his block after a 911 call about gunshots in the neighborhood.