Gilroy
– Benjamin Michael Teutsch pleaded not guilty to one count of
kidnapping Tuesday afternoon, on charges stemming from his arrest
after a Gilroy woman said he tried to abduct her last month.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Benjamin Michael Teutsch pleaded not guilty to one count of kidnapping Tuesday afternoon, on charges stemming from his arrest after a Gilroy woman said he tried to abduct her last month.
Teutsch’s public defender Louella Tsai entered his not guilty plea before Commissioner Deborah Ryan in the San Martin courthouse, and he is scheduled to be back in court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 5. He has been in Santa Clara County jail since his Nov. 18 arrest and is being held without bail because he was on probation on unrelated charges at the time of his arrest.
Teutsch, 29, stands accused of trying to force a 40-year-old McDonald’s employee into his van at about 11:30pm Nov. 13, the night before 16-year-old Ebony Carter disappeared on her way from Gilroy to San Mateo County. He was arrested in Milpitas five days later, after Carter pointed to Teutsch as her kidnapper and gave his name to police. Since Carter was found Dec. 12 and has subsequently changed her story, Teutsch has not been charged in that case.
The woman who told police she fought off a would-be kidnapper identified the man as Teutsch when police showed her his photo, before his arrest.
The alleged victim said Teutsch, driving an older, white cargo van, tried to kidnap her in the parking lot of the 797 First St. restaurant as she got off her shift. She said Teutsch pulled his van up behind her car, blocking her exit, as she fixed a minor problem under her car’s hood, according to court documents. Teutsch then got out of the van, grabbed the woman’s shirt and began pulling her toward the van, she said, but she was able to escape and ran back inside McDonald’s.
Several other McDonald’s employees identified Teutsch from the photo taken from a surveillance camera at a downtown business that he visited the following afternoon. He reportedly went through the fast food restaurant’s drive-thru at some point that night. The photo was given to police following the publicity surrounding Carter’s disappearance and the search for a suspect matching Teutsch’s description.
Teutsch told police he was at McDonald’s that night, and did approach the alleged victim, but said he rolled down his passenger-side window to talk to her, when she ran off, according to court documents.
“Because of the Carter case, the case that he is being charged with right now appeared to be – it made him, in some ways, seem a lot more guilty,” said Tsai, his public defender. “But now that it turns out the Carter case was not … as serious or not even as true as people thought, immediately, I think, a closer look has to be taken at what he is being charged with now.”
Carter had called police on Nov. 17 – a day after saying she was kidnapped – to say she was safe and would hide until Teutsch’s arrest. She wasn’t heard from until Oakland police found her Dec. 12, and since then has not told a consistent story about her whereabouts after failing to return to the San Mateo County group home where she lived. The District Attorney’s office continues to investigate the case to decide whether to charge Carter with a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime.
If convicted, Teutsch could face eight years in prison.
