Sex offender named Pirate reaches plea agreement after burning disabled woman with cigarettes

POCATELLO — A sex offender named Pirate will no longer face prison time after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Pirate, who legally changed his name from Daniel Selovich, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of battery, according to court documents filed Nov. 8. Before reaching the plea agreement, Pirate faced four felony counts of aggravated battery and a persistent violator enhancement aimed to keep him in custody longer if convicted.

Magistrate Judge Scott Axline is not required to accept the plea agreement and if he does not, Pirate can withdraw the guilty plea and take the case to a jury.

The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office learned of Pirate on Nov. 9, 2020, when a concerned family member asked for a welfare check on a Downey woman assaulted by Pirate. The woman with disabilities met him on a dating app and agreed to let him stay the night with her.

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The victim told investigators during the night, Pirate used a cigarette to leave multiple burn marks on her body and a large scratch on her back. Pirate also reportedly put his foot into the victim’s mouth, according to court documents.

The victim said she believed Pirate had recently been in Salt Lake City and, while he was visiting her, he looked himself up online to see if any warrants were out for his arrest in Utah. Deputies called the Salt Lake City Police Department and learned on Nov. 6, 2020, Pirate assaulted a woman multiple times at a motel.

A Salt Lake Police report obtained by EastIdahoNews.com shows Pirate allegedly attacked an ex-girlfriend at the motel after becoming upset over their recent breakup. According to the victim in Salt Lake, Pirate allegedly head-butted her several times, kicked her in the shins, and knelt on her abdomen. The alleged attack sent the victim to the hospital, but the woman did not want to press charges.

The woman in Idaho also said she did not want to press charges.

Deputies looked further into Pirate’s history and discovered he is a registered sex offender. By that time, the woman in Downey called and said she wanted to press charges.

When the victim opened up to detectives, she said Pirate arrived at her home on Nov. 7 and she agreed to let him stay for a few days. When she and Pirate went into her bedroom, he bit her lip and neck so hard it made her cry.

“Pirate held her (mouth open) so that he could ash his cigarette into her mouth,” according to the probable cause. “(The victim) said that he took pictures as she held the ash in her mouth.”

The attacks were not the first time Pirate was accused of assaulting a woman.

In 2010, authorities arrested him for a 2004 rape of a Redding, California, woman, KRCR TV reported. Pirate pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that in 2004, Pirate broke into the Las Vegas motel room of a mentally and physically disabled woman. The victim said that Pirate beat her with a belt as he sexually assaulted her. Pirate was not charged in the case until his DNA came back as a match 12 years later.

He pleaded guilty to sexually motivated coercion and a judge ordered him to spend up to five years in prison in 2018. For this crime, Pirate was required to register as a sex offender.

Before his arrest in Las Vegas, Pirate allegedly committed crimes in Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News reported that in 2015, Pirate allegedly held a woman captive for five weeks in a remote Alaskan cabin and sexually assaulted her.

“The charges described harrowing torture and assault,” according to the Anchorage Daily News. “During the next five weeks, (the victim) was sexually assaulted daily, beaten, kicked, bitten, cut with a knife and duct-taped to Selovich at night, according to prosecutors. Authorities said Selovich used a rope to tether her neck to a ceiling rafter, keeping her captive during the day. He threatened to ‘cut her face off,’ according to the charges.”

The victim managed to call for help and was rescued by helicopter. Before Pirate could go to trial, the woman died and the case was dismissed in 2016. It was the DNA in this case that connected Pirate to the Las Vegas sexual assault.

As in the Las Vegas cases, Alaskan authorities declined to comment on the matter.

After serving his sentence in Nevada, sightings of Pirate popped up in multiple places, including Alaska, Nevada, Missouri, California and now Idaho, according to court documents.

Pirate has been in the Bannock County Jail since his arrest in November 2020. As part of the plea agreement, after he is sentenced on Jan. 4, Pirate will be released from custody.