El Forastero Eric Burkitt pleads guilty to lesser charge in rape case
Accused of multiple sex crimes, El Forastero Motorcycle Club member Eric G. Burkitt pleaded guilty Tuesday to felonious restraint and received a five-year prison sentence.
Burkitt, 25, was charged in March 2009 with forcible rape, two counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of assault, and sexual misconduct for allegedly assaulting a 29-year-old woman in November 2008.
Burkitt was known in the outlaw motorcycle club of 1 percenters as “Little Eric.” In 2005, club members considered him an up-and-coming prospect (“Live Free & Die”). At the time, one of the riders described Burkitt as timid around women.
“We’re like, ‘Man, quit being so fucking quiet. You want to know why you never get laid, motherfucker? Because you act too goddamned nice to these girls. You can’t act like that, man. You’ve got to be a fucking dickhead. If you want to get some pussy, you can’t act like some shy boy. Nice guys finish last. You’ve got to tell them how much of a slut they are and how fucking much of a pimp you are. And then they’ll fucking want to fuck you.’ He’s starting to catch on.”
On November 11, 2008, Burkitt allegedly “caught on.”
Court documents give this account: Burkitt met a woman at Twin Cities Tavern to talk about her soon-to-be ex-husband. They left the bar in his pickup truck, but Burkitt stopped in a parking lot at 2 East 59th Street and asked for a kiss. The woman said “no.” He kissed her anyway.
Then he allegedly went off, shoving her head into a door frame, removing her shirt and kissing her breasts. The woman tried to fight him off, but she told police that Burkitt ripped her pantyhose and penetrated her vagina with his finger, pulled off her pantyhose, put on a condom and penetrated her vagina with his penis. She claimed Burkitt couldn’t keep an erection, so he performed oral sex on her. While this was going on, Burkitt allegedly slapped her four times and tried to choke her with her necklace, but it broke. The woman also lost her two-chain belly button ring with a cross.
When it was over, Burkitt dropped the woman off at Twin Cities Tavern.
She reported the rape around 3:19 a.m., picked Burkitt out of a photo lineup and told police that he was wearing a “Run what you brung” T-shirt and blue jeans during the alleged attack.
Doctors at St. Luke’s Hospital examined the woman and noticed facial trauma, including redness on the left side of her face. The woman’s bra and shirt were also torn. The crime lab discovered saliva and semen on the woman’s torn clothing as well as a condom.
Authorities searched Burkitt’s home on March 25, 2009. They found five handguns, one assault weapon, two mushrooms, 322 unidentified pills, brass knux and T-shirts with the slogan, “Run what you brung.”
In an interview with police, Burkitt claimed he didn’t know the woman.
Last week, Burkitt and fellow El Forastero Robert E. Stewart were sentenced to five years in federal prison without parole for conspiracy to distribute meth to fellow bikers between January 1, 2002, and July 31, 2007.
