District Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting
His Best Friend While High on PCP
- Attack Took Place in 2011 in Northwest Washington -

     WASHINGTON - A 36-year-old man has pled guilty to a felony charge for sexually assaulting a woman who had been his longtime friend, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced today.

     The defendant, of Washington, D.C., is not identified here to protect the privacy of his victim. He and the victim had been best friends for nearly 19 years at the time of the assault, and they viewed themselves as siblings, holding themselves out to others as brother and sister.

     The defendant pled guilty on July 19, 2012 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to a charge of attempted first-degree sexual assault. He is to be sentenced Oct. 5, 2012 by the Honorable Robert E. Morin. He faces a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison.

     According to the government’s evidence, the defendant, his then-girlfriend and their children were evicted from their home, and the victim said that they could all live with her in Northwest Washington until they found new housing. On the afternoon of the incident, April 30, 2011, the defendant smoked PCP while his girlfriend and their children were at the grocery store, and while the victim was cleaning her apartment. He then told the victim that a “sex demon” was inside of him and wanted to have sex with her. He grabbed her by the hair, hard enough to pull some of it out, pulled her to the floor, and sexually assaulted her. The attack stopped only when the defendant’s girlfriend returned from the store and knocked on the victim’s door.

     In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Machen acknowledged the work of MPD’s Sexual Assault Unit; and of the medical professionals of the D.C. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program at the Washington Hospital Center. He also thanked Paralegals Lynita “Nikki” Green, Kristy Penny and Jason Manuel; Legal Assistants Tanisha “Nikki” Nelson, Charmonique Price, Ashley Patterson and Nicole Lee, and Victim Advocate Veronica Vaughan. Finally, U.S. Attorney Machen commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sharon Donovan and Ari Redbord, who investigated, indicted and prosecuted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter V. Taylor, who prosecuted this case

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