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WASHINGTON – Federal agents arrested a Louisiana man and former member of the United States Navy stationed in Japan, relating to a 2004 sexual assault. The arrest was based on a two-count indictment returned Friday by a federal grand jury in New Orleans.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser of the Eastern District of Louisiana made the announcement.
Travis Lamont Murray, 36, from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of sexual abuse. He had his initial court appearance Friday, June 14, 2019 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dana M. Douglas for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The indictment alleges that on or about the late evening hours of May 25, 2004, and the early morning hours of May 26, 2004, in Yokosuka City, Japan, Murray did knowingly cause a victim to engage in a sexual act by the use of force and by threatening and placing the victim in fear that she would be subjected to death and serious bodily injury. Murray was identified as the assailant after a DNA sample of his was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office during an unrelated investigation in 2018 and was determined to be consistent with a DNA profile obtained during the sexual assault investigation previously entered into CODIS.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The prosecution is being handled by Senior Trial Attorney Frank Rangoussis of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn McHugh of the Eastern District of Louisiana.
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