Columbia man ordered to give DNA in rape case

COLUMBIA - On Monday afternoon, a Columbia man was court ordered to provide a DNA sample that could potentially help the state convict him of rape charges brought against him last March.

Eric Saverson, 46, who was convicted in 1995 for sexual assault and felonious restraint and served five years in prison, was arrested by Columbia police on suspicion of forcible rape, forcible sodomy and felonious restraint.

A woman went to Saverson’s apartment on the 2000 block of Willowbrook Road with a friend, who knew Saverson as “Rick,” on March 11, said Andy Scholz, the Boone County prosecuting attorney. When the woman awoke around 6 p.m. at Saverson’s home, her friend was gone, Scholz said. He would not say why the woman was sleeping or whether drugs were involved.

According to the probable cause statement, the woman told police she tried to leave but Saverson grabbed her, threatened her with a glass bottle and forced her to perform oral sex on him before forcing intercourse on her. Afterward, Saverson took the woman outside his house, where she ran to a passing car and got a ride to the Columbia Police Department, according to the statement.

On March 14, the woman spotted the suspect’s mug shot on the Boone County Sheriff’s sex offender registry Web site and alerted police.