Rape claim shot down

PORT CLINTON — A former Put-in-Bay police officer falsely accused another of rape after the two began a brief affair last year that abruptly ended, according to prosecutors. Arica Waters https://thatrealityblog.com/ Neither officer is with the department today, but Arica Waters will be back in Ottawa County soon in a courtroom to face falsification charges — felony and misdemeanor counts — if she doesn't land a plea deal. Her next court date is Sept. 20. In July 2020, she accused another officer on the force, a part-time detective who is a full-time business owner with a summer residence on the island — of having sex with her without consent. Jeremy Berman is listed as co-owner of Findlay American Prosthetic and Orthotic Centre in Findlay. Both he and Waters quit working for the Put-in-Bay Police Department after Waters filed the complaint against Berman, accusing him of rape. Waters has a history of reporting sexual abuse when she was young, as early as age 9 until she was 13. Reports were made to various police departments and college administrations later by Waters, according to the report. Some of the reports of past sex crimes and other abuse she made happened in Sandusky, at Cedar Point, in Lyndhurst, which is listed as where Waters lives now, and in South Euclid and Wheeling, West Virginia, "where all of her abusers were expelled," the report states. She also was "outed" on the MTV television program "Catfish," in a 2017 episode that features digital sleuths tracking down people who assume false identities online to trick other people. Strange brew When he was a "volunteer" officer on the force, Berman would often have parties at his home, according to a report of the investigation. "Sometimes he sends a mass text and sometimes it is a select group of people that are invited, and sometimes you hear it through the grapevine," former Put-in-Bay police Captain Matt Mariano told the investigator. It's normally an open invitation to all police officers, the report states. The incidents between Waters and Berman happened at one of those pool party barbecues, on Sunday, July 5, 2020, and the next day. "(Mariano) said at one point he asked Arica if she was familiar with a 'Berman Drink,' and she said she was fine. Mr. Mariano said Jermy Berman's drinks consist of 50% alcohol and they are strong." Berman, Mariano, another officer and the officer's girlfriend and Arica Waters all ended up together in a hot tub. Mariano told the investigator Waters took off her bikini top and was trying to get the other woman to take her top off also. Mariano told the investigator he talked with Berman later about the allegations Waters made against against "JB," a nickname Berman uses. "Jeremy Berman told him that Arica is after his money," the report states. Hot tubbing together Another officer who was interviewed told the investigator that Waters told him she had sex with Berman and was not distressed about it. He told the detective that Waters told him she "could make Jeremy Berman her sugar daddy if she wanted to." When Berman agreed to be interviewed, weeks after the detective first contacted him, he was accompanied by his attorney and a private detective he had hired after first learning about Waters' allegation about a month earlier. Police officers, both on-duty and off-duty, stopped by that day, Berman told the investigator. At one point, he told the investigator he gave Waters $300 so she, the other officer and his girlfriend all could go on a helicopter ride around the island. "It's not unusual for him to pay for people including other officers a ride in the helicopter," the report states. It was after the helicopter ride when Waters became "very flirtatious and began touching and rubbing his arm," the report states. The physical contact between them escalated while they were in the hot tub with the others. There is video surveillance from the neighbor's pool area. She wanted to be strangled while they had intercourse, Berman told the investigator. It was over in about 10 minutes, he said, according to the report. He said they met again the next morning and had sex again. The detective also interviewed the neighbor, who said people who "come to his house or Jeremy's house act a little envious so he didn't think it was out of the ordinary that Waters had become flirtatious with Berman," the report states. The next time the detective asked to talk with Waters she had a condition: She wanted a civil attorney she hired to be present when they met.