OAKLAND — A few minutes before 2 a.m. one recent morning, a woman selling sex and a man buying it were alone together in a car on East 10th Street, when a man with a knife attacked.
He took $250 from the two, then attempted to steal the man’s car keys. The victim fought back, slicing his hand as he attempted to grab away the knife, then started his vehicle and sped off, leaving the woman and the assailant alone. He forced the woman to orally copulate him at knifepoint on the sidewalk, as nearby surveillance cameras rolled, authorities said.
The Sept. 10 robbery and sexual assault was just another recent example of violence or an otherwise shocking crime that has occurred this year within Oakland’s not-so-secret open air sex markets. It has brought undercover cops to known hangouts for sex workers on a regular basis, resulted in criminal cases against pimps and the recovery of trafficking victims as young as 13.
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Eight days later, it happened again. Oakland police say the same man attacked a sex seller and buyer in a near-identical incident one block away just eight days later. Once again, he allegedly robbed the pair of several hundred dollars in cash and several condoms, then ordered the woman to orally copulate him.
In the Sept. 18 incident, Oakland officers were nearby when a witness called 911 to report the attack. The officers came but the suspect fled on foot and lost them, but left his Kia Shortage behind.
With the Kia, electronic evidence, and cellphone records, police were able to identify the suspect as 54-year-old Cory Butler, a resident of San Francisco who was arrested at his girlfriend’s Richmond home.
Butler has been charged with 14 felonies, including kidnapping, forcible oral copulation, robbery, attempted carjacking, and with having a prior second degree robbery conviction. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer has filed court papers asking that Butler not be compelled to sit in court for his preliminary hearing, making it harder for witnesses to identify him.
Butler is being held at Santa Rita Jail without bail.