Man sentenced to 40 years for rape of woman, teen girl

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - A Baker man was sentenced to 40 years hard labor after pleading guilty to the rape of a woman and a young girl.

Michael Rushing, 50, was set to stand trial on Monday, Sept. 8 for two cases. Instead, he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated rape and will serve 40 years concurrent for each charge. He will also receive credit for time already served.

Charges for second-degree kidnapping were dismissed.

The initial case happened on Friday, July 27, 2012. Rushing kidnapped a woman at gunpoint from the Bone and Joint Clinic on Hennessey Blvd. in Baton Rouge. He then took the woman to Iberville parish and raped her.

Rushing later drove the woman back to Baton Rouge and released her at the McDonald's on Nicholson. The victim called police and provided lengthy details about the attack.

The victim told investigators that Rushing told her intimate details about his life, including information about his family. Investigators used the information to identify Rushing as a suspect.

Upon Rushing's arrest, investigators ran his DNA through CODIS. A match was found in connection to a cold case from June 16, 2000.

The original report noted that the victim was 14-years-old at the time of the attack. She told police a man approached her while she was walking in her neighborhood. He then forced her into his truck, blindfolded her, took her to a residence and raped her.

Rushing has prior arrests that include, but are not limited to, DWI and possession with intent to distribute (marijuana). In January 2003, Rushing was sentenced to 7 years of active supervised probation for the possession charge.

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