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Tuesday, July 29, 1997

Woman finds tape of estranged husband in date-rape pill case

By STEFANI G. KOPENEC Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) - Nancy Sera thought she was going to see a video of her second child's birth when she pushed the play button. Instead, she discovered a recording that authorities say shows her estranged husband raping three unconscious women.

"It's devastating," Mrs. Sera, 31, said Monday, shaking her head. "It was just so shocking. I was shaking."

Steven Sera, a 39-year-old traveling businessman, allegedly used Rohypnol, the so-called date rape pill, to knock his victims out. Authorities said the tape shows him having sex with women from Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.

He has been charged in the Texas and Arkansas cases.

Mrs. Sera fought back tears as she talked about the tape she discovered June 13 after going to Sera's home to pick up the video camera when he wasn't home.

"First and foremost, it destroyed my family," said Mrs. Sera, who is raising the couple's two daughters, who are 3 months old and nearly 5. "I've gone through a lot of hatred that he could be so cruel because he did this while I was pregnant with our second child. I don't think he had any regard for me, my daughters, women in general, that he could be so vile and so heinous."

Mrs. Sera, who sued for divorce in February alleging adultery, said she watched part of the tape before contacting her lawyer and turning the tape over to a private investigator, who gave it to police.

Sera, a lumber company owner, was arrested two weeks later and charged with sexual assault for the alleged attack on a Colleyville woman.

He posted bail and was arrested about two weeks later in Texas on an Arkansas warrant charging him with rape, attempted rape, kidnapping and drugging a person. He is now jailed without bail in Arkansas.

Sera's Arkansas attorney, Clint Huey, questioned the tape's authenticity. But prosecutors said it clearly shows Sera committing the crimes.

"We see the man's face," said Deputy Prosecutor Caryn Cleveland Short. "We see every part of him as well as every part of the female. No way is this a faked tape. There is positive identification."

Jack Pate, Mrs. Sera's attorney, said at least three other women "have come forward who had something to do with Sera in some capacity." However, he said, he doesn't know the full extent of what the women have to say or if any criminal charges will result.

Neither Huey, nor Sera's Texas attorney, Donald Gandy, returned a telephone call Monday afternoon seeking comment.

The tape also appears to show Sera having sex with an unconscious woman in Missouri. No charges have been filed in that case.

Police said Sera had been on business trips to Missouri in September and Arkansas in November. Investigators said Sera knew all the women and had dated one victim, but she stopped seeing him when she learned he is married.

Officers confiscated pills labeled Rohypnol from Sera's home. Although the drug is illegal in the United States, it is used legally in other countries to treat sleeplessness, anxiety, convulsions and muscle tension.

Mrs. Sera said she suspects her estranged husband may have used Rohypnol on her because of some memory loss, which the drug can cause, and "waking up on the weekend and never being able to get it together."

Although she said she has lost her husband and the children have lost their father, Mrs. Sera doesn't regret finding the videotape.

"I'm glad I did because, you know what, I think that without it, he would never have been caught." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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