CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The co-owner of a popular restaurant in Little Italy is charged with repeatedly raping a woman he knew, including at least one time that was captured on video, according to a police report.
Emigert Memeti of Mia Bella is charged with six counts of rape and five counts each of kidnapping and gross sexual imposition involving four incidents between October and June, according to court records.
Memeti, 38, who goes by his middle name Gerti, is free on $50,000 bond after he pleaded not guilty at his July 27 arraignment in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Memeti told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on Thursday that the allegations are “very one-sided,” and he looked forward to his side of the story coming out in the courtroom.
“This is an ongoing thing,” he said. “It’s all lies and fake allegations, and the truth will come out. It’s only a matter of time.”
Memeti’s defense attorney, Angelo Lonardo, said he plans to “vehemently fight” the case.
The indictment comes after a June 30 encounter between the woman and Memeti at his Highland Heights home, according to a copy of a police report.
Police were called to the house for a disturbance involving Memeti, the report says. Officers discovered that a judge previously granted Memeti a restraining order preventing a woman who was also at the house from being there, according to the report.
The woman told police that the protection order had been revised, but officers said they had no record of the new order and arrested her for violating the protection order.
The woman told an officer on the way to jail that Memeti had repeatedly sexually assaulted her, the report said.
Police gave the woman her cellphone, and she pulled up a video that she said showed the most recent attack, according to the report.
The document said the video, dated June 24, shows that Memeti walked into the woman’s house in Highland Heights to get a drink of water, and the woman could be heard telling him multiple times to stop and to leave her house. She also told him multiple times that she did not want to have sex with him, the report said.
The video showed Memeti followed the woman into the garage and stand in front of her and push her up against her car, the report said. Memeti also followed the woman outside and pushed her against a gazebo in the front yard, then carried her back into the garage, the report said. She went inside, and Memeti followed her into a guest bedroom and ripped off her clothes, the report said.
The woman said Memeti left after she threatened to call the police, the report said.
She told police that similar events occurred “four or five times” dating back to October and “two or three times this has resulted in non-consensual” sex,” the report said.
Detectives told the woman to write a detailed statement about each incident and provide them with videos of the incidents, and the woman said she would, the report said.
Highland Heights police arrested Memeti on July 14 after obtaining a warrant charging him with rape. Lyndhurst Municipal Court Judge Dominic Coletta set Memeti’s bond at $50,000 at an arraignment the next day. He was released after posting bond that day. The court has jurisdiction over Highland Heights.
He is also charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct related to the June 30 disturbance.
Memeti had to turn over 54 guns, 33 ammunition magazines and his passport, according to court and police records. Memeti has co-owned Mia Bella since 2009.
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