Police probing alleged rape in downtown

Asheville police are probing a rape that reportedly happened about 11:30 p.m. Sunday in a Grove Street apartment downtown.

The victim, who reported the assault to the police this past Monday, said she met a man she did not know at the Hot Spot convenience store and gas station on Asheland Avenue.

The woman said they conversed and she willingly went back to her apartment with the man, police noted.

Police said they see no relation between the attack and the last two rapes in downtown.

In the previous two cases, a woman reported being raped by a stranger on May 3 on Carolina Lane downtown, and another woman said she was standing on the corner of Bartlett Street and South French Broad Avenue on April 11 when she was ordered to get into a vehicle and driven to a house on South French Broad Avenue, where she was sexually assaulted.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Asheville police at 252-1110 or CrimeStoppers at 255-5050.

Two nurses in Mars Hill charged with drug theft

MARS HILL — The alleged theft of prescription painkillers from a retirement center was being investigated by detectives early this week.

The probe follows the arrest of two nurse assistants at Mars Hill Retirement Community on charges that they stole the medication from patients and replaced it with Tylenol, according to Mars Hill police.

Laurie Fraser and Kathleen Poplos, who both worked the third shift, were accused of falsifying records at least since January to cover up the thefts, officials said.

Fraser, 42, was charged with felony embezzlement and two counts of misdemeanor possession, while Poplos, 22, was charged with two counts of selling and delivering a controlled substance and embezzlement.