This article is reproduced without permission under the fair use doctrine. Originally published online at http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3669507,00.html
Copyright 2005, Naples Daily News.
By CHRIS W. COLBY, user cwcolby at domain naplesnews.com
April 2, 2005
Three men selling magazines door to door for a Naples-based company, Fidelity Reader Service, repeatedly raped a 19-year-old Concord, N.H., woman inside her home, police said.
The three men were arrested around 11 p.m. Thursday in Aberdeen, Md., after police in New Hampshire issued a nationwide alert.
Joseph Haniffy, 24, Chicopee, Mass., faces two counts of rape. Christopher (Tobias) B. Armstrong, 23, of Jonesboro, Ark., and Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Monroe, Utah, face one count each of rape.
"They were taken into custody and waived extradition and will be brought back to New Hampshire to face charges," Concord Police Lt. William Carroll said Friday.
Police didn't identify the woman because of the nature of the charges. Police said the three men raped her Monday while soliciting houses randomly throughout Concord. Fidelity sells magazine subscriptions at reduced rates and targets areas of the country in which to sell them door to door.
"These individuals approached this woman under the pretense of selling her magazine subscriptions and managed to enter her apartment. Once in the apartment, these individuals repeatedly sexually assaulted her," according to a police department press release.
Police in Concord investigated the rape after contact with authorities from Saugus, Mass., where the three men also are wanted on recent lesser charges, including receiving stolen property, according to the Concord Monitor. They identified the men as traveling magazine subscription salesmen working for Fidelity Reader Service, 737 Domestic Ave., Suite #3, East Naples.
Concord police obtained arrest warrants and announced Thursday they needed the public's help to locate the men.
Fidelity's owner, Belo Kellam, was unavailable for comment Friday. He told the Concord Monitor the men didn't work for his company but instead were hired by a company that contracted with Fidelity.
Lt. Carroll disputed that Friday.
"They have sales slips from Fidelity Reader Service, so they're employees of theirs as far as we're concerned. They give Fidelity's name, address and phone number (when they speak to customers)," Carroll said.
Carroll had no comment on what led to the woman's rape beyond what he detailed in a press release, which says the men gave no indication they were armed when they attacked the woman.
Carroll said the men and their vehicles, a white Chevrolet station wagon and a white GMC truck, were placed on the National Crime Information Center database. Police in Maryland knew of the arrest warrants when they encountered and arrested them late Thursday.
Aberdeen police said Friday a "cooperating witness" tipped authorities that the men were on their way there. Patrol officers recognized one of the vehicles listed in the NCIC database, pulled it over and identified the men. They were then arrested without putting up a struggle.
No date has been set for extradition.
This kind of magazine sales business has drawn fire from critics who say the companies use questionable recruiting practices that too often lead to the hiring of people who then commit crimes.
In 2002, Nicholas Kuhlman of Naples, a Fidelity Reader Service employee, was arrested on a charge of sexual indecency with a minor in Arkansas when he exposed himself to a 6-year-old girl. He is serving six years in prison.
In 2001, another Fidelity employee was arrested in Washington on a criminal trespassing and burglary charge.
In an interview with the Naples Daily News in April 2004, Kellam said a former FBI agent had done background checks on his employees for the past six months. At the time Fidelity employed about 100 sellers and four managers. As a member of the National Field Selling Association, a trade association group, he was required to do background checks.
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Revision r1.1 - 14 Apr 2005 - 02:50 by EliMantel
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