Durham Man Charged With Rape

DURHAM, N.C. — A Durham man was arrested Wednesday and charged with raping a woman.

Cleveland Augusta Spence, 45, of Hanover Street, was charged with first-degree rape and placed in Durham County Jail under a $600,000 bond. Spence is a registered sex offender and was convicted of second-degree rape in 1996 in Durham.

A 46-year-old woman told officers she was walking on Mallard Avenue shortly after

midnight on Jan. 31 when a man approached her and asked for a light. She gave him a light, and he then grabbed her and dragged her inside an abandoned house in the 800 block of Mallard Avenue.

Police say the man tied an electrical cord around the woman's throat, hit her several times and threatened her with a knife before he raped her.

The man fled when he heard police sirens in the area officers were responding to a break-in in progress call.