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D.C. Man May Be Linked to 5 Assaults
Philip Rucker and Clarence Williams
23 Nov 2006 12:00 am
A District man was charged last night in connection with the sexual assault of a woman who was abducted in the District and taken to Prince George's County early yesterday. Police are investigating whether the man may be linked to at least five other sex assaults.
In each incident, a man kidnapped a woman at gunpoint, forced her to drive to Prince George's and sexually assaulted her in her vehicle before returning the woman to the site of the abduction, police said.
Last night, police in the District charged [the suspect], 36, with carjacking while armed in connection with the most recent incident. Soon after, Prince George's County authorities issued a warrant charging [him] with first degree rape in the same case.
[He] also was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine in an unrelated case. He is to be arraigned today in D.C. Superior Court.
District police said the most recent incident began shortly after midnight yesterday, when a woman was abducted as she got into her car in the 2000 block of Savannah Terrace SE.
The man, who had a handgun, forced her into the passenger seat and drove to several areas of Prince George's and sexually assaulted her in the vehicle. He then drove the victim back to the District, got out of the car and fled, police said.
"It's very similar to the other attacks," Cpl. Diane Richardson of the Prince George's County police said before [the suspect] was charged. A task force of officers from the District and Prince George's was established two weeks ago to investigate the cases.
Prince George's police were relieved that a suspect was in custody, Richardson said, but she added that "we still have a lot of work ahead of us" in possibly connecting [him] to the other sex assaults.
How Foley Skirted Rules To Pursue Relationships
Amy Goldstein and Elizabeth Williamson
22 Oct 2006 12:00 am
Former Pages Describe Lawmaker's Advances
They met on the House floor. He was a 16-year-old political junkie, dressed in the drab navy blazer and gray slacks of a congressional page, rushing phone messages to the members he served. Rep. Mark Foley was tanned and charismatic, a successful politician in his mid-40s willing to joke with him between votes.
They talked perhaps a dozen times. Then at his page graduation ceremony that June, in 2002, he was excited when Foley appeared, uninvited, and dictated his personal e-mail address for the boy to jot in his memory book. "I started contacting him right away," the young man recalled. "I knew a congressman that I . . . talked to online. That was pretty cool."
The messages were innocent at first. But after the young man moved home, he recalled, Foley started asking about "my roommates, if I ever saw them naked." Within months, the congressman was dangling a job offer, "because I was a hot boy," he said. Two years later, when he contacted Foley for advice on D.C. hotels, the congressman wrote back: "You could always stay at my place. I'm always here, I'm always lonely, and I'm always up for oral sex."
The experience of the young man, now 22, who agreed to recount his interactions with Foley on the condition of anonymity, was characteristic of the way the six-term House member pursued the online relationships that, once revealed, forced him to resign from Congress late last month.
Interviews with nearly three dozen former pages suggest that the Florida Republican befriended a wide circle of teenagers during their stints as House pages. Then, shortly before they left or soon afterward, he singled out certain boys to write to -- including four newly confirmed by The Washington Post, in addition to former page Jordan Edmund and one other whose illicit online conversations with Foley ended the congressman's career. Some of the correspondence was brief and casual. But over months or years, if a boy seemed willing to go along, some conversations grew more sexual.
Based on the interviews with pages, who spanned most of Foley's dozen years in the House -- and interviews with parents and former program employees -- the congressman's behavior went unchecked because he operated within accepted norms of the program's culture.
Most of all, his interest in the boys coincided with the ambitions of many of the teenagers, who craved contact with members in hopes of fostering political careers of their own.
"I didn't want to piss off a member of an institution that I really revered," said a former Republican page from 2002. "I figured maybe someday I will want to be involved in Congress," he said. "I didn't want to make an enemy."
'A human tragedy'As judge finds rabbi guilty of sex crimes, fellow clergy saddened by verdict
Eric Fingerhut
13 Sep 2006 8:59 pm
A local rabbi's reaction to a hidden camera sting of online sexual predators was a key factor in the guilty verdict handed down last week.
Alexandria U.S. District Court Judge James Cacheris found David Kaye guilty of "coercion and enticement" and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor.
Sentencing will take place Dec. 1. The Rockville rabbi, who has been in jail since his indictment in May, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 60 years.
In his opinion, Cacheris wrote that Kaye's defense was not credible, citing as evidence his "demeanor, body language and facial reaction ... of complete and utter shock" when confronted by Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen, as well as his statements to Hansen, "I know I'm in trouble," and, in response to the question of "what are you doing here," "not something good."
The judge decided the case after Kaye waived his right to a jury trial.
Those who have known and worked with Kaye in the community reacted sadly to the verdict.
Kaye's conviction is the culmination of a "human tragedy," said Rabbi Sid Schwarz, executive director of the Rockville-based teen educational group Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, where Kaye had worked prior to the Dateline report.
Tears of Grief, Cries for Hope
Allison Klein
03 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The coffin was open, and Cynthia "Little Cindy" Gray looked peaceful as a storm of fury and despair churned around her in First Rock Baptist Church.
Hundreds wearing "R.I.P. Lil Cindy" T-shirts mourned the latest victim of violence in Southeast Washington's Benning Terrace.
This time, the story was more horrific than many could remember: Gray, 17, saved her infant godson by pushing him under a car as bullets started flying the night of Aug. 24.
While she was on the ground, her killer stepped over several people to get to her, then shot her in the face. She was days away from starting her senior year at Eastern Senior High School.
D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) spoke to those in the crowd, some of whom were wailing uncontrollably, and warned against settling the score with violence.
"I know many of you have retaliation in your hearts. You can't even think about that," Barry said. "An eye for an eye leaves us both blind. If you love Little Cindy, get retaliation out of your heart."
He said someone there might know who killed Gray. The crowd responded with a loud "umm-hmmmm."
"I know you don't like snitches, and I don't like snitches, either," Barry said, alluding to his brushes with the law and getting chuckles from the pews.
But as whispers went around the room that the community knows who killed Gray and Garner, Barry implored residents to tell police. Three other teenagers were wounded in the shooting.
Ronald "Moe" Moten, co-founder of the grass-roots group Peaceoholics, stepped up to the microphone and said that nobody who spoke before him was going to help change the community and that they must do it themselves.
"If you don't have hope things will change, they will remain the same," he said.
He then told those in the church that they are living in a time of contradictions. "We live in a world where we tell children not to beef, but when our country has a beef, we go to war," Moten said. He said that it is time to rebuild "the village" and stop killing.
5 Arrested In National Mall Robberies, Assaults
12 Aug 2006 1:41 pm
U.S. Park Police have arrested five people who they say were involved in a series of armed robberies and sex assaults on the National Mall.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein said the five suspects committed five armed robberies on the Mall in May and July. Some of the incidents also included sexual assaults, including the rape of a 17-year-old woman, authorities said.
Capitol Cop, Coach Charged in Sex Case
Associated Press
06 Aug 2006 1:05 am
A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been charged with sexual abuse after he allegedly made videotapes of himself having sex with a 15-year-old girl who said she was working as a prostitute for a Maryland high school football coach.
According to court documents, Sgt. Michael Malloy told authorities he and Arron Burroughs videotaped themselves engaging in sexual acts at Malloy's home in Charles County. Malloy has been charged with first- degree child sex abuse while armed.
Malloy's attorney, Steven McCool, says his client has been a Capitol Police officer for 15 years and has an "unblemished record." U.S. Capitol Police could not be reached for comment late Saturday.
The 'Crime Emergency' That Never Goes Away
Colbert I. King
05 Aug 2006 12:00 am
The District's leaders tell us we are now in the midst of a crime emergency. Pray tell, when in the past 20 years -- well, 17 to be exact -- have we been without one?
With each emergency, more arrests, more guns recovered, more young men hauled into court and jailed, which usually lowers the communal blood pressure until, of course, the next crime wave.
Sooner or later, however, the incarcerated are returned to the District's streets, unrehabilitated and untrained. Meanwhile, preteen, out-of-control youngsters grow into out-of-control teenagers with guns and attitudes.
Ergo , another flare-up in violence, or a sensational crime that grabs national attention, followed by an emergency proclamation that produces yet one more version of the same short-term response.
Putting the emotional and physical well-being of troubled children, youth and struggling families ahead of downtown interests is a good way for the city to begin taking a bite out of crime. But that calls for a mayor and city council with the right priorities instead of an eye for the cameras.
Crimes make a comeback
Clarence Page
18 Jul 2006 12:00 am
Is crime making a comeback? In some cities it is. Like the District of Columbia, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Boston report an upsurge in murder, particularly among juveniles who are not content to merely rob or steal.
Adding alarm to newscasters' voices is the way this crime wave in the District, unlike earlier ones, is hitting the neighborhoods of tourists and rich people, not just street gangs and crack prostitutes.
Yes, the containment and abandonment of crime problems in poor people's neighborhoods has long been a dirty little secret of urban life. Eventually, as with a lid held down on a boiling pot, crime spills over into other neighborhoods so major media and powerful politicians no longer can ignore it.
Yet, back in the less fortunate neighborhoods, abandonment by the rich and powerful does not leave either helpless or hopeless. Churches, block clubs, community organizations and other local resources can step up and help give parents and kids some guidance.
Too many parents have dropped the ball, either unwilling or unable to prevent their kids from falling off the social cliff. Too many parents are still children themselves. They have left it up to others to do the child rearing they should do themselves.
Female Sex Offender Speaks Out
Lesli Foster
09 May 2006 11:30 pm
They commit crimes that go largely unnoticed. While recent news reports have shed some light on women who become sex offenders, their actions seem to generate less outrage than their male counterparts.
Now, one woman breaks her silence about the choices she made that cost her everything.
Glossing Over Mistreatment in the Magbie Case
Colbert I. King
08 Apr 2006 12:00 am
Jonathan Magbie was a 27-year-old man who was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a childhood accident. Although he had never been convicted of a criminal offense and although he required private nursing care for as much as 20 hours a day, Magbie was given a 10-day sentence in the D.C. jail in September 2004 by D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin for possession of a marijuana cigarette. He died in city custody four days later. His story has been the subject of several previous columns.
Earlier this week Edward D. Reiskin, deputy mayor for public safety and justice, provided D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairmen, respectively, of the council's Health and Judiciary committees, with the findings from the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) investigation into the care provided Magbie from Sept. 20 to Sept. 24, 2004.
Actually, to call the Corrections Department's report an "investigation" is like describing a BB gun as an AK-47. The eight-page document produced by the department's Office of Internal Affairs attempts to explain away a more extensive and highly critical investigation into Magbie's death that D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby conducted last October. Willoughby's report and the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and two lawyers on behalf of Magbie's mother, Mary R. Scott, are more credible. They provide real insight into Magbie's neglectful treatment by the criminal justice system.
Say this much for ol' D.C., it takes care of its own.
If justice is to be had in this case, it won't be found in D.C. agencies. Better to look to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. That's where the Jonathan Magbie lawsuit is filed.
Weast favors illegal aliens over student safety
Mr. Weast advised the school board not to vote on Maryland House Bill 531, which would require contractors for the state's public schools to conduct background checks on their employees.
His fear was that background checks would lead to the uncovering of illegal aliens in the work force and result in their prosecution and deportation.
Alas, this fear trumped the fear of sex offenders laboring in the vicinity of what they view as prey.
