Marine says priest came on to him

TAMPA - The Marine reservist charged with beating a visiting Greek priest insists he was the victim of an attempted sexual encounter from a man he thought at first was homeless, and then perhaps a terrorist.

Appearing Thursday morning on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, Jasen Bruce claimed that after Father Alexios Marakis inexplicably found his way into a gated, private parking garage Monday night, the priest got sexually aggressive with him.

"[I] turn around and there's a man standing not two feet from me. I thought he was a homeless guy about to ask for directions, but not a few seconds went by, he reached out, grabbed my genitalia," Bruce said. "He proceeded to say, 'I want to F you.' That was the only English he said."

Bruce says he was on the phone with 911 the whole time as the priest kept coming at him -- and he fought back with a tire iron from his open trunk.

"I gave the guy a warning when I was on the phone with 911, told him, 'Do not take a step closer.' He took a step closer, so I defended myself," Bruce continued. "This guy did not even flinch."

Once police arrived, they handcuffed the priest. And, Bruce said, the officers even let him help search the priest's car.

"They let me search the car with them as they were joking around about the items they were finding. They were finding robes, religious-type material. Then there was a suitcase in the back, this is where the 'Allahu Akbar' thing came from. The police looked at me and said, I'm not opening this, looked at the other police officer and said I'm not opening this, and said let's call the bomb squad," Bruce recalled. "Then I said, 'He said some Akbar-type stuff' and they started laughing, and one of the cops says, 'Do you know what that means?' I said, 'I know it's what they say before they blow you up.'"

There was nothing but religious material in the bag, said a Tampa police spokeswoman.

"It's not true, his credibility was in question from the start. He also told us he was going to Iraq in January, but his reserve unit denied it," stated Laura McElroy.

Bruce said his lawyer has interviewed a number of people who were in the parking garage Monday night, and the implication is strong that Bruce believes those people are backing him up.

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old reservist also denies intimations of homosexuality. He's married, he said, and fitness photos taken years ago were hijacked on the internet.

"The websites that have my picture illegally hijacked [them] from the Z Productions websites, and they are currently investigating a lawsuit against these gay web sites that stole my pictures," Bruce insisted.

Father Marakis has declined to speak publicly about the encounter. So the case may come down to what was recorded on those 911 tapes, along with surveillance tapes from that parking garage -- evidence Tampa police say they're not ready to release until their investigation is complete.