A fired rookie cop has been arrested in a sexual assault in Waterbury, Washington
Police in Washington arrested 32-year-old Nayimke Amechea, who police discovered in connection with the assault while investigating an October 2022 incident in Pierce County, Waterbury Police Lt. Ryan Bessette said Tuesday afternoon.
Bissett said Waterbury police maintain an active arrest warrant for Amicia, charging him with first-degree sexual assault and home invasion. The arrest warrant sets bail at $2 million, he said, adding that police will work with counterparts across the country to coordinate his extradition to Connecticut.
In Washington, Puyallup Police Chief Scott Engel said in early March that Amicia had been charged with third-degree rape. After the arrest, Amiccia was fired from his job as an officer cadet with the Puyallup Police Department, he said.
Engle noted that Amicia was hired in August 2022 and did not work alone as a police officer.
During the investigation, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab found that DNA obtained from the sexual assault kit was a match to the Waterbury case.
A Pierce County Sheriff’s Department detective contacted the Waterbury Police Department about the incident and learned that in 2016 a woman reported that an unknown man knocked on her door and entered her home, claiming to be police, according to Amicia’s arrest warrant. Affidavit.
“The man tied the victim’s hands behind her back and forced her to have sex,” the affidavit said.
As the suspect was leaving in a white pickup truck, the woman saw him drop something on the ground. The woman told police the suspect was wearing a condom with a rainbow-colored wrapper during the incident, which police later confiscated and tested for DNA, according to the affidavit.
In March, Bissette said no one had been charged in the 2016 case, but investigators had been in contact with authorities in Washington regarding the DNA link. He said investigators “will continue to work closely with Washington state law enforcement to continue investigating the 2016 case in Waterbury, Connecticut, and hopefully bring closure to the victim of the incident.”
Bissette also noted that despite identifying as a police officer, Amicia was never employed by the Waterbury Police Department.
In Washington’s case, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to a home in Tacoma, Washington, around 1:30 a.m. on October 7 for a reported rape. A woman initially told police she agreed to meet a man she met on a dating app. The suspect, later identified as Amicia, allegedly picked up the woman from her home in his white pickup truck and parked his vehicle a block away.
The woman said Amicia “was very serious and aggressive, which made her uncomfortable.” Amicia allegedly asked the woman to take off her clothes and sexually assaulted her, according to the arrest warrant.
The woman told police that Amicia “forced her out of the truck” and used her phone’s flashlight to read the license plate. The license plate matches Amicia’s vehicle’s registration, a 2014 Dodge Ram, police said in the warrant.
The woman then went to the hospital for a sexual assault examination, which deputies presented into evidence the next day. The Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory confirmed the presence of male DNA on various swabs obtained from the group. The DNA was then entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, and “was declared a match to an unrelated 2016 rape case from Waterbury,” the affidavit said.
In a subsequent interview on February 28, the woman told police she was a sex worker and agreed to spend 30 minutes with the suspect in exchange for $400. She also told the suspect he needed to bring a condom, according to the warrant.
On Oct. 7, Amiccia allegedly drove the two to a nearby street and told the woman he did not have a condom. The woman said she wouldn’t have sex with him without a condom, and he replied “they would have sex regardless and ordered her to take off her clothes,” according to the warrant.
The woman stated that Amicia was aggressive and that she was “afraid of what would happen to her if she did not do what she was told,” the warrant states.
The woman gave police two numbers that the suspect used to send her text messages, according to the warrant. During the investigation, police looked at Amicia’s Facebook page, which contained several posts about a white Dodge Ram, including one in 2014 that showed the truck with Connecticut license plates, the arrest warrant said.
As part of the investigation, police also looked at Amicia’s cellphone records, which contained data consistent with him being at the site of the alleged rape at 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 7, according to the arrest warrant.
Amicia was taken into custody on March 2. Police also confiscated his pickup truck, the warrant states.
In a statement to the police, Amicia said that “his relationship with his wife was not good, and that he had sex with many prostitutes, but he did not force himself on anyone.”
Amiccia said in the interview that he lived in Middletown, Connecticut, before moving to Washington state. Records show Amicia is licensed as an electrician in Connecticut, allowing him to work as an electrical contractor for an approved employer.
When they were told that DNA in the sexual assault kit matched the Waterbury incident, she said she was another “sex worker” and he “wasn’t interested in restraining people,” police said in the arrest warrant.
Those who have experienced sexual violence can talk to professionals for support, information, counseling or referral by calling the free and confidential National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). Those who want to chat online with trained professionals, which is also free and confidential, can also go to RAINN.org/Get-Help. Help is available 24/7.
