Black Chris Hawthorne Lures Girl Into Car by Claiming to Be a Taxi Driver, Rapes her

NOLA
October 8, 2013

Curtis Hawthorne, 22, was arrested on Oct. 7 and booked on charges of rape and kidnapping for assaulting a 21-year-old woman in February after picking her up in his car and impersonating a cab driver. (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)
Curtis Hawthorne, 22, was arrested on Oct. 7 and booked on charges of rape and kidnapping for assaulting a 21-year-old woman in February after picking her up in his car and impersonating a cab driver. (Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office)

Police have arrested a man they say raped a woman at gunpoint after posing as a taxi driver and picking her up in the French Quarter earlier this year.

Curtis Hawthorne, 22, was jailed Monday (Oct. 7), eight months after a 21-year-old woman told police she was raped and robbed after hailing a cab in the 300 block of Royal Street around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 9 as she tried to get back to her hotel.

Hawthorne pulled over, pretended to be a cab driver and said he would take the woman to her hotel, an arrest report says.

The woman told police that once she was in the car, he was driven to an undisclosed location where her attacker brandished a gun and demanded she take off her clothes. Then she was raped, the arrest report says.

Read More