A Bowling Green man accused of sexually assaulting and robbing two women appeared in court Monday to answer to a pair of indictments.

Jermaris Whiteside, 34, was arraigned in Warren Circuit Court on two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count each of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (fentanyl), first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (meth), possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Warren Circuit Judge Chris Cohron appointed Eric Clark of the Department of Public Advocacy to represent Whiteside after Whiteside informed the court that he could not afford an attorney.

Clark entered a not guilty plea on Whiteside’s behalf.

Whiteside has been in Warren County Regional Jail since his arrest on Jan. 2 by the Bowling Green Police Department.

The BGPD investigation began when a woman contacted officers on Dec. 13 to report a sexual assault and named Whiteside as the suspect.

According to prior court testimony, the woman was an escort who had been contacted by Whiteside for her services and she agreed to pick him up on Patrick Way.

“Soon after (Whiteside) got into her vehicle, she said he produced some pepper spray as well as a handgun and told her as long as she cooperated, she would be OK,” BGPD Detective Ryan Dillon said while testifying during a January hearing in Warren District Court.

The woman said they drove to a secluded area and that Whiteside sexually assaulted her in the backseat of the vehicle, and that they later traveled to a convenience store where Whiteside used the woman’s debit card to buy some merchandise, Dillon said.

On Jan. 1, city police heard from a second woman who reported that Whiteside reached out to her on a text app for sex work and that she traveled from Elizabethtown to meet him at a location on Scottsville Road.

Dillon testified that the woman reported picking up Whiteside, and that he was wearing a pair of white gloves and a facial covering.

Whiteside is then alleged to have produced a handgun and had her drive to a park and coerced her into performing a sex act.

The woman reported that Whiteside then went through her purse and took $3,000, Dillon said in court in January.

Police interviewed Whiteside on Jan. 2, and he reportedly claimed that he met with both women for sex, but that he did not understand why they would say he sexually assaulted and robbed them, according to testimony from Dillon.