MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A Montgomery, Alabama, man is facing a charge of sexual battery after a woman told police that he climbed into bed with her at a hostel in Miami Beach and sexually assaulted her.
Miami Beach police arrested 61-year-old Joel Patrick Bush on Thursday after they were called to the Bikini Hostel at 1255 West Ave.
It is there that they said they found Bush in the courtyard area of the hostel, shirtless and in his underwear, putting on a pair of shorts. Miami Beach police officers said they also met with the victim at the scene and she identified Bush as the man who had entered her room.
She told police that she and her boyfriend were drinking at a bar on Miami Beach and around 1:30 a.m., she left the club by herself and walked back to the hostel. The victim said they had been staying in a private room inside the main house.
She then recounted the timeline of events when she returned. She told police that she left the door to her room ajar since her boyfriend didn’t have a key and she expected him to return soon.
She said she took a shower and went to bed. The victim told police that moments later she felt a person in the bed with her and thought it was her boyfriend.
She then noticed that there was an unknown “older” man in the bed sexually assaulting her. She said for a moment she thought she was having a nightmare, but when she full woke up, she began yelled at the man to stop and to get out. She said he continued to lay next to her on the bed as she continued to shout at him to get out.
According to the report, Bush got up, unlocked the door from the inside and left. The door had locked automatically when Bush entered the room and it closed behind him because fob access is needed to enter the rooms, according to the report.
Bush was arrested and charged with one count of sexual battery. It was not clear why Bush was in the Miami Beach area.