Bellevue man to face trial on charges that he raped 2 teenage girls
A Bellevue man will face trial on charges that on several occasions in March he raped two 14-year-old girls — one of them a runaway he met at a Downtown Pittsburgh bus stop.
Deandre Steele, 34, was held for court Friday following a preliminary hearing.
Police said Steele took the runaway to his Bellevue apartment to smoke marijuana, according to a criminal complaint in the case. There, police said, he repeatedly raped her.
From March 16 to March 24, Steele raped and sexually assaulted the girl on other occasions, according to police.
After the first incident, Steele took the girl to a restaurant to eat and then dropped her in Market Square in Downtown Pittsburgh, police said.
The girl returned home and said she told nobody about the attack, the complaint said.
Less than a week later, the girl ran away again, this time with a 14-year-old friend, according to the complaint.
They drank alcohol at a friend’s house, then ran into Steele on a Bellevue street, police said.
He took them to his apartment and raped both of them, the complaint said.
Two days later, the runaway saw Steele on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus, the complaint said. He told her to come to his apartment building to pick up personal belongings she left there, according to the complaint.
Steele told the girl to invite her friend “for more sex,” the complaint said.
The girl refused and walked into a vacant apartment nearby.
Steele then called 911 and reported the girl as a runaway who was loitering in a neighboring apartment, the complaint said.
Bellevue Police came and took the girl into custody.
Steele told the responding officers that he didn’t have contact with the girl, but that she looked young, the complaint said.
Allegheny County Police arrested Steele on March 25 on 37 criminal charges — including six counts of sexual assault and statutory sexual assault, and three counts each of rape and rape of a substantially impaired person. They also charged Steele with videotaping portions of the encounters.
Steele was taken to the Allegheny County Jail. District Judge Jehosha Wright denied bail.
Steele’s lawyer did return an email Friday seeking comment.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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