Victims testify they were lured, assaulted by man using Grindr app

VISTA, Calif. -- A preliminary hearing was held Thursday in the case of a North County man accused of luring and sexually assaulting several other men by using the Grindr dating app.

Tobias Bartee sat quietly, listening to testimony in a preliminary hearing Thursday.

The 28-year-old defendant is accused of sexually assaulting at least four men who he allegedly lured to his apartment in Escondido.

Police arrested Bartee at his apartment last September.

According to investigators, Bartee used a fake name and posed as a white man on the dating app. And when victims went to the apartment, Bartee allegedly greeted them, saying the fictitious white roommate was not home. After victims were lured inside, they say Bartee forcibly restrained them, then assaulted them.

One victim testified he agreed to meet up, with the intention to smoke marijuana, but not have sex -- then things quickly escalated when he was thrown onto a bed.

“He proceeded to push me back down and he got up and went over to the seat he was previously sitting in. He lifted the cushion and showed me his gun. He came back over and exclaimed to me, 'Don't make me have to use this. Are you going to do what I say?’ I was asking him if he was going to rape and murder me," one victim testified.

Another victim, through an interpreter, testified he made contact through Grindr, then quickly realized he was in a bad situation with someone other than who he expected to meet. He says he tried to leave Bartee’s apartment, but was forced into a sexual encounter.

“The first time I left the apartment, that was when he was telling me to go into his bedroom and I said 'no' and since I didn’t want to, I left the apartment. That was when he followed me, he grabbed me and took me inside. After he hit me, I went outside -- that's when I called the police," said the victim.

Bartee faces a dozen felony charges, including assault, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

Because of the sex crimes and multiple victims, if convicted, he could get life in prison.