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A biochemist in Miami Beach is facing multiple charges after authorities arrested him on multiple charges of allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women at his luxury condo.
Jeremy Bittner, 41, was arrested Monday on multiple counts of sexual assault, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance.
The charges are related to three incidents that began in 2022, involving several alleged victims describing disturbing behavior by a man they believed to be a prominent professional.
Each of the alleged incidents occurred at Bittner’s luxury condo, The Waverly, on the west side of Miami Beach.
“The way I would categorize it is that it is an individual who victimized at least three women. He has caused pain and suffering that will last for the rest of their lives, I am sure,” said Ernesto Rodríguez, a spokesman for Miami Beach.
Jeremy Bittner, 41, faces charges in Miami Tuesday afternoon for three alleged rapes or attempted rapes of women he lured to his Miami Beach condo.
He is “a dangerous man who has been taken off our streets,” he continued. “Luckily, these women were brave enough to step forward…Ultimately, our goal is to make sure this man stays behind bars.”
The department believes there may still be other women who were victims of Bittner’s behavior and is encouraging them to come forward.
A 47-year-old woman told investigators that Bittner sexually assaulted her on Jan. 30, 2022, according to arrest reports.
The woman said she met Bittner in April or May 2020 and considered him a friend because she understood he was married at the time.
He later told her that he and his wife had separated. After that, when they were getting out of her, he tried to have sex with her and she rejected her advances.
On the day of the alleged incident, Bittner asked the woman to go get a drink, but she said that when she arrived, he was smoking crack and snorting cocaine and proceeded to offer her ecstasy.
She said no to the drugs, but accepted a glass of wine, which is when she said she started to feel drowsy, as if he had potentially drugged her drink.
Bittner then allegedly sexually abused her while trying to get it out of her.
“Due to her altered state, believed to be the result of being drugged, she was unable to defend herself,” the arrest report states.
The woman was finally able to fight Bittner and left her home.
The biochemist told detectives that the sexual activity was consensual and denied drugging the woman.
The police reports also include a second alleged victim, a 25-year-old woman, who claims to have been sexually assaulted by Bittner in late October 2022.
The woman traveled to Miami Beach from Rome, Italy – where she lives – after looking for a place to rent in Florida and being contacted by Bittner, who offered her a room in his apartment for $1,500 a month.
After arriving in Miami, Bittner picked her up at the airport and took her back to her house, where she saw a living room table covered in drugs.
The young woman said Bittner took cocaine and soon became physically violent.
He yanked on her head and grabbed a gun, telling her to “get on with the show,” according to the report.
Bittner then grabbed her by the neck and pushed her onto her couch, where he stripped her of her clothes and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said she tried to fight him but was unsuccessful.
Eventually she was able to contact an acquaintance who came to pick her up.
Bittner told detectives that this had also been a consensual encounter.
Bittner, a biochemist, had been married until recently, when he separated from his wife.
He lived in Waverly South Beach, a luxury condominium building on Miami’s west side, where the young women who lived in the building said he liked hanging around too long.
Bittner’s arrest report includes a description of one of the alleged serial rapist’s young women who became violent towards her after she returned to his apartment.
A third alleged victim told detectives that Bittner drugged and sexually abused her on February 4 of this year.
The 34-year-old woman said she was at her condo in the same building waiting for the elevator when Bittner approached her. The couple chatted and exchanged numbers.
He later texted her asking if she wanted a drink, to which she agreed.
She went to his condo, where he offered her cocaine, which she refused. He made her a vodka mixed drink, which she drank a small amount of when she began to feel “extremely relaxed.”
Arrest reports indicate that Bittner at one point forcefully poured liquid into his mouth. Her next memory was waking up to her on her couch when Bittner grabbed her by the neck.
After she left, Bittner texted the woman photos he took of her passed out on her soda.
The woman later produced a video on her phone of her confronting Bittner and asking him why he had drugged her.
She told him she didn’t want to be drugged, to which he replied, ‘Then why did you leave?’
A neighbor who was alarmed by Bittner’s arrest said NBC 6 that he was ‘always kind of lurking, he always stays in the elevator a little bit longer, he wants to talk to you in the elevator, that kind of thing.’
“He rubbed me the wrong way, he liked following me around and he was a little worried if he lives in the building so I can’t believe it.”
Judge Mindy Glazer of the Miami-Dade judicial system (left) and Jeremy Bittner wearing a suicide prevention vest (right), appearing in court on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 following their arrest
A shot of the arrest scene at The Waverly in Miami Beach. Bittner was arrested Monday on a series of charges related to three alleged cases of sexual assault.
Exterior shot of The Waverly SoBe off 14th Street on the west side of town
Bittner of the South Beach scene in his Twitter profile picture. She told the judge that he couldn’t afford a lawyer because he lost his job in September.
One woman, who did not want to be named, said she and others in the building would see Bittner at odd hours of the day with women they assumed were escorts.
“I wonder why it took so long,” he said, referring to the law enforcement action against Bittner.
He is currently being held without bail in the Miami-Dade jail.
Bittner told the judge that he was fired from his job at the end of September of last year, to which the judge responded that he doesn’t think he qualifies for a public defender.
The state requested a $1 million bond.