A muscular Yale lab technician was arrested and charged with murder Thursday morning in the slaying of grad student Annie Le, authorities said.

Raymond Clark 3rd, his head bowed, was led out of a Super 8 Motel in handcuffs and placed in an unmarked police car about 8:30 a.m. Traffic was halted on two major boulevards outside the Cromwell, Conn., motel as Clark was transported to the New Haven police stationhouse.

His bond was set at $3 million.

"Based on numerous interviews, forensic evidence, and information learned from viewing video surveillance, detectives have secured the arrest warrant for Clark," New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said.

Lewis said Le, 24, was not sexually assaulted. He called her strangulation death a case of "workplace violence," but would not elaborate on what might have triggered the attack.

There are no other suspects, Lewis added.

The New Haven Register reported that authorities have linked DNA from Clark, 24, who worked in the same Yale building as Le, to the murder.

Undercover investigators were massed in the parking lot overnight - and one motorist passing by shouted, "Get him, get him!" at police.

Clark apparently decamped to the motel after cops hauled him from his home in handcuffs Tuesday, obtained DNA samples and let him go.

While police were waiting for DNA results, they had gathered circumstantial evidence.

Clark reportedly failed a lie detector test and had scratch marks on his chest. And computer records from Yale suggested he was the last person to see Le.

Swipe cards Le and Clark used to move through different areas of college buildings showed they were in the same room shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 8, The Hartford Courant reported.

Le, 24, wasn't seen alive after that, and her card wasn't used again. But Clark swiped into the area where she was found strangled five days later in a crawlspace, a law enforcement source told the paper.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis refused to give details of Clark and Le's relationship, saying only that they worked in the same building and passed each other in the halls.

Cops interviewed Clark several times in the days after Le disappeared, but then he stopped talking with detectives and asked for a lawyer.

Clark's lawyer, David Dworski, said yesterday the muscular technician was cooperating with the investigation. "We are committed to proceeding appropriately with authorities with whom we are in regular communication," Dworski said.

State police officers impounded Clark's red Mustang yesterday. They also took about 150 pieces of forensic evidence from the Yale lab, where he mostly did janitorial work.

Le's body was discovered stuffed behind a basement wall inside the lab on Sunday - the same day she had planned to get married on Long Island.

The official cause of her death was ruled as "traumatic asphyxiation due to neck compression."

As cops and Clark played a waiting game last night, new details about his background emerged - including an allegation of forcible sex.

A high school sweetheart told Connecticut cops six years ago that he forced her to have sex, the New Haven Independent reported.

"I feel like I'm 16 all over again," the unidentified woman wrote in recent postings on her Facebook page, the Independent reported. "It's just bringing back everything."

Clark and the young woman attended Branford High School, where he played on the baseball team and was a member of the Asian Awareness Club.

Cops were summoned to the Connecticut school in 2003 after Clark and the girlfriend got into a confrontation.
She told cops "that at one time did force her to have sex with him," a detective wrote in the police report.

The young woman declined to press charges.

Clark's neighbors in Middletown, Conn., were in disbelief that he was at the center of a murder probe.

"He always seemed too quiet," neighbor Rick Tarallo, 23, said. "Other than that, he seemed like a very good guy. He didn't strike me as he was gonna kill somebody. I'm still in shock."