A Miami Beach biochemist faces multiple charges after authorities arrested him on suspicion of drugging and sexually assaulting several women at his luxury apartment.
Jeremy Bittner, 41, was arrested Monday on several counts of sexual battery, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance.
The charges are related to three incidents that began in 2022 involving several alleged victims describing the terrifying behavior of a man they believed to be an upstanding professional.
Each of the alleged incidents took place at Bittner’s luxury apartment, The Waverly, on the west side of Miami Beach.
“The way I would categorize him is, is a person who has victimized at least three women. He has caused pain and suffering that will last the rest of their lives, I am sure,” said Miami Beach spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.
Jeremy Bittner, 41, will be charged Tuesday afternoon in Miami with three alleged rapes or attempted rapes of women he lured to his Miami Beach apartment
He is “a dangerous man taken off our streets,” he continued. “Fortunately, these women were brave enough to come forward… ultimately, our goal is to keep this man behind bars.”
The department believes there may be other women who were victims of Bittner’s behavior and encourages them to come forward.
A woman, 47, told investigators she was sexually assaulted by Bittner on Jan. 30, 2022, according to arrest reports.
The woman said she met Bittner in April or May 2020 and considered him a friend, as she understood at the time that he was married.
He later told her that he and his wife had separated. Then, when they hung out, he tried to have sex with her and she refused his advances.
On the day of the alleged incident, Bittner asked the woman to come over for a drink, but she said he was smoking crack and snorting cocaine when she arrived, then offered her ecstasy.
She said no to the drugs, but accepted a glass of wine, and then said she started feeling sleepy, like he might have drugged her drink.
Bittner then allegedly sexually assaulted her as she tried to get him off.
“Because of her altered condition, presumably due to drugging, she was unable to defend herself,” the arrest report reads.
The woman was eventually able to fend off Bittner and left his home.
The biochemist told detectives 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 rental in Florida and was contacted by Bittner, who offered her a room in his apartment for $1,500 a month.
After arriving in Miami, Bittner picked her up from the airport and drove her back to his home, where she saw a table in the living room covered in drugs.
The young woman said that Bittner used cocaine and soon became physically violent.
He jerked her head and grabbed a gun, telling her to “join the program,” the report said.
Bittner then grabbed her by the neck and pushed her onto his couch, where he stripped her clothing and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said she tried to fight him off, but couldn’t.
Eventually she was able to contact an acquaintance who came to pick her up.
Bittner told detectives that this too had been a consensual meeting.
Bittner, a biochemist, was married until recently, when he divorced his wife
He lived in the Waverly South Beach, an upscale apartment building on Miami’s west side, where young women who lived in the building said he liked always hanging out a little too long.
Bittner’s arrest report includes a description of one of the alleged serial rapist’s young wives who turned violent towards her after she went back to his apartment
A third alleged victim told detectives she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Bittner on Feb. 4 this year.
The 34-year-old woman said she was waiting for the elevator in her apartment in the same building when she was approached by Bittner. The pair chatted and exchanged numbers.
He later texted her asking if she wanted a drink, to which she agreed.
She went to his apartment, where he offered her cocaine, which she declined. He made her a mixed drink of vodka, which she drank a little bit of when she started to feel “extremely relaxed.”
The arrest reports show that Bittner forcibly poured liquid into her mouth at one point. Her next memory was waking up on his couch when Bittner grabbed her by the throat.
After she left, Bittner texted the woman pictures he took of her passing out on his soda.
The woman later produced a video on her phone of her confronting Bittner and asking why he drugged her.
She told him she didn’t want to be drugged, to which he replied, “Then why did you let yourself in?”
That was told by a neighbor who was alarmed by Bittner’s arrest NBC6 that he was “always flipping around a bit, always staying a bit longer in the elevator, wanting to talk to you in the elevator, things like that.”
“He rubbed me the wrong way, he liked to follow me around, and I was a little worried if he lived in the building, so I can’t believe it.”
Miami-Dade Court System Judge Mindy Glazer (left) and Jeremy Bittner in a suicide prevention vest (right), appear in court on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 after his arrest
A shot of the arrest scene at The Waverly in Miami Beach. Bittner was arrested Monday on a number of charges related to three alleged cases of sexual battery
Exterior shot of The Waverly SoBe at 14th Street on the west side of town
Bittner from the South Beach scene in his Twitter profile picture. He told the judge he couldn’t afford a lawyer because he lost his job in September
One woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she and several others in the building would see Bittner at an odd time of day with women they believed to be escorts.
“Wonder why it took so long,” she said, referring to law enforcement taking action against Bittner.
He is currently being held in Miami-Dade Jail without bond.
Bittner told the judge he was fired in late September last year, to which the judge replied that she doesn’t believe he qualifies for a public defender.
The state asked for $1 million bail.
