The U.S. District Court trial of Negasi Zuberi, accused of kidnapping and raping two women, began this week in Medford. One alleged victim gave testimony about how she was abducted from Washington — and how she escaped.
On Wednesday, government prosecutors brought a metal-barred door into the James A. Redden U.S. Courthouse. It was the same door a 22-year-old woman says she crawled through to escape a cinder-block cell at Negasi Zuberi’s Klamath Falls home in July of 2023.
FILE - This undated photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Portland Field Office shows the interior of a makeshift cinderblock cell in Klamath Falls, Ore., allegedly used by Negasi Zuberi.
Courtesy of FBI / AP
The witness, who was working as a sex worker on a street corner in Seattle, said Zuberi had picked her up in his vehicle one night. After paying for sex, he claimed to be an undercover officer and shackled her wrists and ankles. “I’m a different kind of cop. I’m not like all the others,” she recalled him telling her.
She claims to have tried using her phone but had no signal while in Zuberi’s car. She said he later showed her a device that blocks cell service.
In her testimony, the woman said Zuberi raped her on the 400-mile drive to his makeshift cell in Klamath County. He threatened her with a taser and handgun. At one point she asked if he would kill her. “You’re too valuable. Why would I hurt a princess like you?” she recalled him saying.
She was told they were driving to a “transition center” for criminals and that there would be others there. She said she never believed his story about being a police officer and that for some of the drive he was “strangely friendly,” asking her Zodiac sign and letting her play music.
She described the small room where she was locked in Zuberi’s home as stifling in the summer heat, making it hard to breathe. He brought her a bucket to use as a toilet and a handwritten questionnaire, supposedly an intake form, which she said she filled out with a mix of real and fake answers.
When he left her alone, she slept briefly before looking for ways to escape. She said she bit off her long, acrylic nails to better break through a metal screen on the cell’s door. Once out, she grabbed Zuberi’s handgun from his unoccupied car, chambered a round, and fled outside where she flagged down a passing driver and called police.
FILE - This undated booking photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Portland Field Office shows Negasi Zuberi.
Courtesy of FBI / AP
Prosecutors asked her to identify the man she was prepared to shoot that day. She pointed to Zuberi, who she described as looking “both young and old” during her testimony.
He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges which include kidnapping, possessing a gun as a felon and transportation for criminal sexual activity.
In opening statements on Tuesday, Zuberi’s defense claimed the government has relied on accusations and lacks evidence for their charges.
The trial is expected to last three weeks and include hundreds of exhibits and dozens of witnesses.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.