PLANTATION, Fla. – A man accused of raping a disabled woman in 2014 was arrested Tuesday by Plantation police.
According to an arrest report, the victim, who is diagnosed with mental retardation, and her attorney met with detectives June 11, 2014.
Police said the woman claimed that her "life coach" Michael Bellamy, 56, had been coercing her to have sex with him.
The woman is under the care of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD), which contacted Bellamy's company, Opulent Living, to assist the woman in paying her bills, buying groceries, getting her children to doctor appointments and other routine tasks.
Police said Bellamy had no control over the woman's finances and was not supposed to have a key to her apartment.
According to the report, Bellamy forced the woman to have sex with him several times and told her that people who complained about him or his business were "never heard from again."
The woman told detectives that one day she told him that she was worried about how to buy groceries, and he told her that he would help her if she performed oral sex on him.
The woman said she complied with all of Bellamy's requests because she was scared that he would harm her.
According to the report, the victim eventually texted Bellamy that she didn't want to have sex with him anymore.
Police said Bellamy approached her outside her home and asked why she didn't want to have sex with him and whether she had told anyone about their sexual encounters. He then went inside her apartment and forced her to have sex with him, police said.
The victim told detectives that her child began crying in the living room so she used that as an excuse for Bellamy to stop.
Police said the victim kept used condoms from Bellamy because she planned to call police.
The victim said that she didn't immediately call authorities because she was scared that no one would believe her because of her mental deficiencies. She said she had been abused while in foster care and no one believed her then.
She settled a civil lawsuit with Bellamy in the fall of 2015.
Bellamy's business, which received funding from the state, was shut down last week. Bellamy's pastor vouched for him in court Thursday, saying that is not the man he knows.
"All I can say is that what I know about him is very good," Rev. Wright said. "He's hard working and helpful. I didn't know him prior before he was saved."
Bellamy is being held in jail on a $22,500 charges of sexual battery on a person with special conditions. He has been ordered to surrender his passport if he bonds out of jail and he will be placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor.
Bellamy was previously arrested in 1996 on similar charges, but he was not convicted.
State officials said they conducted a level 2 background check on Bellamy, which came out clean.
"APD has initiated an investigation to ensure all proper procedures were followed," APD spokeswoman Melanie Etters said in a statement. "If anyone did not live up to our incredibly high standards, they will be held fully accountable."