NEWPORT NEWS, Va.(WVEC) — The owner of a martial arts school is facing more than a dozen charges after three students told police that he sexually assaulted them.
The charges against 30-year-old Jeremy Allen Armstead include Rape, Sodomy, and Strangulation. Armstead is the owner of Xtreme Dragon’s Black Belt Academy, which is located at 13901 Warwick Boulevard.
Court documents say that two of the people accusing Armstead of the crimes told went to Newport News Department Headquarters on July 1 to talk to police. One of the people, said Armstead began assaulting her in 2015 when she was 12 years old and that the abuse ended in 2017.
She told a detective that she started taking Taekwondo classes at the martial arts academy when it was located on Oyster Point Road. She said about a month after she started, Armstead asked her to help him teach. He began taking her to the school and home. She told the detective that she and Armstead were alone after class one day. She was in the office. Armstead entered. She said he pinned her to the desk, pulled her pants down, and raped her.
The other person who spoke to police said Armstead started assaulting her in 2014 when she was 15 years old. She said the sexual assaults ended in 2017.
Armstead, who lives in the Williamsburg area, faces the following charges:
- Abduction by Force, Intimidation, or Deception (4 counts)
- Rape: Intercourse by Force or Victim Helplessness (4 counts)
- Sodomy by force or Victim Helplessness (4 counts)
- Strangulation
- Indecent Exposure
Armstead was in the Newport News City Jail on Friday. He declined a request for an interview.
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