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Case against martial arts academy owner charged with raping class attendees will go to trial

Posted at 3:20 PM, Nov 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-30 07:14:08-05

Jeremy Armstead

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The owner of Xtreme Dragon’s Black Belt Academy faced a Newport News judge Thursday morning for his preliminary hearing.

30-year-old Jeremy Armstead of Williamsburg is behind bars after a police report said he raped young girls who attended classes at the facility.

Armstead is charged with rape, forcible sodomy, abduction, strangulation, indecent exposure and carnal knowledge of a child between 13 and 15 years of age.

In court Thursday afternoon, a judge certified all charges against him to a grand jury.

In July, court documents stated alleged victims came to the police department to report they had been raped as young girls while at Xtreme Dragon’s Black Belt Academy.

According to court documents, one victim told police she was 12 years old the first time Armstead forced himself on her. This victim told police she was raped and sexually assaulted three more times up until the age of 15. In some cases, she told police, she was tied down.

All alleged crimes occurred at the business, as this victim was taking Taekwondo at the time.

Another victim told police she was 16 years old when she said Armstead raped her inside the business while nobody else was there.

A third victim told police she and Armstead had sex when she was 14, but she believed they were dating at the time. She went on to tell police about another incident where she said Armstead forced her to perform oral sex.

After Newport News Police conducted their investigation, they charged Armstead with four counts of rape, five counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of abduction, one count of strangulation, one count of indecent exposure and one count of having carnal knowledge of a child between 13 and 15.

News 3 attempted to get a statement from the martial arts studio but our calls went unanswered.

Armstead is being jailed without bond.

The prosecutor told News 3 he faces life in prison.

No trial date has been set.