Seen At 11

HORROR: Chilling Hotel 911 Call Leads To Arrest

Night Clerk At N.J. Hampton Inn Brutally Assaulted, But Saved By Good Samaritans, Dispatcher & Cops

CARLSTADT, N.J. (CBS) ― The call came in about 4 a.m. last Friday on the 9-1-1 line. A woman claimed she was being attacked at the Hampton Inn on Paterson Plank Road.

"I've just been attacked," she told the dispatcher. "Please ... He tried to bite my finger off!"

It was the night clerk at the hotel in the Meadowlands who had apparently just survived a 30-minute assault from a man in his early 50s who appeared to be drunk, and possibly high on some powerful drug. The victim recognized him as a guest who checked in the previous Monday.

"It was a guest that attacked me," the woman told the dispatcher. "I was at the front desk in the back office. He came over the counter and he tried to rape me."

Then, repeating the odd, but horrible detail, she reiterated, "He bit my finger!"

By contrast the other woman on the phone line was calm and almost matter-of-fact as she took the phone from the bloody, hysterical victim.

It turns out they were awakened in their room when the victim managed to pull free of the attacker and flee to a first floor hallway. The occupants of room 106 heard the screaming and actually opened the door. The 24-year-old victim was standing there, her hotel uniform in tatters, bruised and splattered with blood. They let her in and called police. The husband, with another guest, kept the attacker at bay while the wife stayed on the line with police. During much of the call you can hear the victim crying the background.

"Can you tell me how long before the officer arrives?" the victim asks the dispatcher.

The dispatcher assures her, "They should be pulling up right now."

In fact during the course of listening to the raw version of the 9-1-1 call you can hear the other victim's helper trying to direct his responding officers and get a description of the suspect to them.

"I don't want anyone else to be in danger," The good Samaritan offers calmly, telling the dispatcher that her husband is still out in the hall with the attacker.

Carlstadt Police Officer Scott Tronziger says the dispatcher relayed the description (5-foot-8 white man in his 50s, wearing a stripped t-shirt) and he practically ran in to the guy.

"As soon as I came around the corner," he told CBS 2 HD, "I saw the assailant on the floor trying to open the door. At that point I wrestled him to the ground and cuffed him and called my partner. He took control of him and I went to the room to see to the victim."

On the tape you can hear Officer Tronziger yelling on the other side of the hotel room door.

"Get on the ground! Get your hands up," he shouts.

A moment later the dispatcher relays the news to the woman on the phone.

"They have the bad guy ma'am," the dispatcher says.

The 24-year-old victim was treated at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus for injuries consistent with a severe beating, including bite wounds that nearly severed her finger.

Kenneth Grough, 52, is at the Bergen County jail. The charges are aggravated sexual contact, aggravated assault, criminal restrain, terroristic threats, and stalking. Grough told police he's from Ohio and was staying at the hotel trying to secure a job as a horse trainer at the Meadowlands Race Track. He also faces charges of aggravated assault and weapons possession from a separate case. Total bail is $1 million although only $250,000 of it are from the Carlstadt attack.

The good Samaritans who opened their door to a woman in trouble were visiting from Canada.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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