Friday, March 6, 1998 | 10:57 a.m.
A former UNLV honors student whose penis was severely bitten by a woman fighting off his attack has pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to attempted sexual assault.
Scott Schwartz attacked the then-24-year-old woman as she showered in her East Charleston Boulevard on April 11, 1996. Her counter attack forced Schwartz to flee the apartment.
Schwartz was originally charged with rape, burglary and battery. After his plea bargain Thursday, in which he pleaded guilty to the single count of attempted sexual assault, Schwartz, 24, was handcuffed and taken to jail.
In the deal, both sides agreed to a sentence of five to 20 years that requires he serve the five years before becoming eligible for parole.
Schwartz and attorney Thomas Pitaro battled the case for nearly two years but the evidence mounted and a plea bargain meant the defendant would still have a chance for freedom while still young.
Had he gone to trial and been convicted of the original charges of burglary, battery, and sexual assault with a deadly weapon, he would likely have been behind bars for more than 20 years.
The plea bargain, according to Deputy District Attorney Abbi Silver, also benefits the victim who "wanted to leave the whole horrific incident behind her."
The victim, Silver noted, won't have to testify in court and won't have to worry about the case being appealed and possibly overturned.
"And tonight she can sleep knowing he is going to be in custody for a very long time," the prosecutor added.
While Silver said she believed the evidence was "overwhelming," she admitted that both sides take a chance when a case goes to trial and the selling point for the victim was the guaranteed finality.
"She wanted to feel safe," Silver said.
Schwartz's attire Thursday of a sweatshirt, casual pants and sneakers contrasted with his prior court uniform of a dark suit and tie that made him look every bit the part of the college achiever and future hotel executive he had worked so hard to become.
Silver, who labeled the dean's list student a "sexual predator," conceded Thursday that "but for an aberration he would have been a productive member of society."
"But rapists come in all shapes," she added.
Silver said the victim turned the tables on her knife-wielding attacker by biting his penis until he dropped the weapon he had picked up in her kitchen after he broke into her apartment.
Because she was in the shower, the victim didn't hear Schwartz until, disguised by a pair of her panties over his head, he pulled her from the bathroom and tried to force her to perform oral sex.
"She bit his penis so hard he couldn't do anything," Silver said at an earlier court hearing. "But for that fact, she could have been killed."
Photos showing the deep bite marks on Schwartz's penis became part of the evidence against him in the grand jury proceedings.
The victim, who suffered several knife wounds on her hands while defending herself, raced screaming from her apartment after inflicting the injuries on her attacker.
A neighbor called 911 and a former police officer living in the apartment complex tried unsuccessfully to apprehend the rapist but did track the getaway car to an area by Schwartz's apartment. The engine was warm and there was blood on the steering wheel, the detective said.
DNA tests on blood left in the victim's apartment by the attacker indicated it likely, but not positively, came from Schwartz.
Any questions about the identity of the attacker, however, were quashed by Schwartz's admission in court that he was the man.
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