Could he be the devil in disguise?
The Yale lab tech who’s a “person of interest” in the murder of grad student Annie Le was accused in a 2003 police report of forcing his high-school girlfriend to have sex with him — and vandalizing her locker when she dumped him, it was revealed yesterday.
The ex-girlfriend is “in total utter shock” that lab tech Raymond Clark is being eyed in bride-to-be Le’s slaying at a Yale research facility, according to a Facebook posting she made that was quoted by the New Haven Independent.
“I can’t believe this,” wrote the unidentified woman, who dated Clark when they were students in Branford, Conn. “I feel like I’m 16 all over again . . . Its jsut [sic] bringing back everything.”
She wrote on Facebook that she heard on Sunday that he was being eyed in the killing. Le’s body was found that same day, stuffed into a cable-wire shaft in an animal-research center in downtown New Haven, where both she and Clark worked.
Sunday was also the day Le, the 24-year-old daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, was to marry Columbia grad student Jonathan Widawsky on Long Island.
“It’s been a rough few days,” wrote Clark’s high-school sweetheart, who, at the time, did not press charges against him.
Her allegation became public just hours after Clark was released yesterday by New Haven police.
The cops had taken the Middletown, Conn., resident into custody to obtain DNA, hair and fingernail scraping samples pursuant to a search warrant.
Last night, an unconfirmed report in the New Haven Register cited police sources as saying cops have obtained a DNA match that implicated Clark in the slaying.
Police were monitoring a Cromwell motel room where Clark has been staying since his release.
Sources also told the newspaper that Clark bore bruises, scratches and abrasions on his arms and chest, as well as a mark on his right ear and under his eye.
He said some of the injuries were suffered during a softball game, the others were cat scratches, according to the Register.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner yesterday announced that Le — who was seeking both Ph.D. and MD degrees — died from “traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression,” but would not reveal how that happened.
A law-enforcement source told the Hartford Courant that an analysis of lab-worker movements through computer swipe cards indicated Clark was the last person to see Le alive.
His high-school girlfriend had spoken to Branford cops on Sept. 29, 2003. They were called to the school on a report of a dispute between the students after she tried to break up with him, the New Haven Independent reported.
Detective Ronald Washington wrote at the time that the two students “are in a relationship which [she] wishes to terminate and [Clark] does not wish to end it.”
Clark “did attempt to confront [the girl] on this date and also wrote on her locker,” Washington wrote. “The school will handle this incident concerning the locker, and at the time of this report, [Clark] was advised to have no contact with [the girl].”
After Washington spoke to the two students at school, the girl went with her mother to the police station to talk to him, according to the Independent.
The girl “wished to tell me of an incident that took place; however, did not want it pursued by this department,” Washington wrote.
“She stated that she had been having a sexual relationship with [Clark] and that at one time [Clark] did force her to have sex with him,” Washington wrote.
“The relationship did continue after that incident, however, she is unsure of what he may do as a result of the break up.”
“She was advised to contact this department if he should make any contact with her and we would pursue criminal charges if the investigation warrants it. [The girl] would not give any formal statement regarding the forced sex,” the detective wrote.
“It should be noted that [Clark’s] parents were also contacted by this detective and advised of the situation.”
The 2004 Branford HS yearbook shows that Clark — who during his time there played on the football, track and baseball teams — was a member of the Asian Awareness Club.
The club’s yearbook page notes that the group cooked 200 spring rolls for a faculty luncheon, and earned money to go on a 2004 trip to Chinatown in Manhattan.
Branford police yesterday refused to release their report about Clark to The Post, citing “the ongoing homicide investigation.” Clark — whom New Haven cops officially have declared a “person of interest — is being eyed because scratches were found on his body and he allegedly failed a polygraph test.
His lawyer, David Dworski, would say only, “We’re committed to proceeding appropriately with the authorities with whom we are in regular communication.”
New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said that two additional search warrants were executed yesterday — one for Clark’s Ford Mustang, and one for other property belonging to Clark. More search warrants are likely to be issued, he said. Early yesterday morning, before cops had the Mustang towed from outside of Clark’s residence, two police officers looked closely with a flashlight at the car’s back seat.
“Do you see that?” one cop asked the other. In the back seat was a black plastic garbage bag that had been tied up.
Lewis said that a total of 250 items have been seized for DNA.
Cops conducted more interviews with other people, but the only warrants that have been issued are for Clark.
“We know where Mr. Clark is at all times,” Lewis said. “I believe that this investigation is going to end in arrest.”
Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh