A 36-year-old man is accused of forcing his way into a Pearl District apartment complex and trying to rape a woman tenant, according to police and prosecutors.

Jason Ray Stewart has pleaded not guilty to a 28-count indictment stemming from the Jan. 6 encounter.

Stewart first attempted to kiss the woman after forcing his way into the lobby of the building in the 1500 block of Northwest 14th Avenue once she came inside from smoking a cigarette outside, according to Portland police Officer Jeffrey Livingston.

Stewart pushed the woman against a wall and placed his hand over her mouth, according to a probable cause affidavit. The woman yelled for help and another person who entered the lobby tried to break the two up. Stewart told the stranger that the woman was his wife as the woman went upstairs to her apartment, the affidavit says.

Stewart is accused of following the woman to her apartment and shoving his foot in the doorway once she opened the door to her unit, according to police and prosecutors.

Despite the woman’s attempts to push Stewart away, he grabbed her arms and pulled her inside her apartment, where he held her down on the floor, Deputy District Attorney Melissa A. Marrero wrote in the affidavit.

The woman screamed for help and a neighbor with a baseball bat responded to the woman’s apartment. Stewart ran out of the building, the affidavit says.

Livingston and another officer located Stewart a short distance away, according to police.

Stewart was arraigned Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court on the indictment. It charges him with 12 counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree attempted rape, two counts of strangulation, one count of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of coercion, one count of fourth-degree assault, two counts of menacing, two counts of harassment, one count of attempted first-degree kidnapping and one count of attempted sexual abuse.

Several of the charges accuse Stewart of also trying to kidnap and rape a second woman on Jan. 6 at the same location. The details of that alleged attack were not described in the initial probable cause affidavit.

Stewart has been arrested several times since Oct. 7. He was charged with second-degree criminal trespass and interfering with public transportation in early October. He also was charged on Jan. 3 with harassment and disorderly conduct.

Each of those charges were dismissed within a day or two of his arrest by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, according to court records.

Stewart was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 3:36 a.m. on Jan. 6 on his latest case. He’s being held on more than $1 million in bail.

Court records indicate he has four prior felony and seven prior misdemeanor convictions.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian