Man arrested in alleged sexual assaults at L.A. Fitness in Rockville

Montgomery County police have arrested a man who allegedly sexually assaulted two women showering in the women's locker room at L.A. Fitness at 11416-A Rockville Pike last Friday, October 21, 2022. Samba Dieng, 18, of Silver Spring has been charged with Second-Degree Rape, Fourth-Degree Sex Offense, and two counts of Second-Degree Assault. He was taken into custody Wednesday at his home without incident. 

Detectives discovered that Dieng had been to multiple L.A. Fitness locations in Montgomery and Prince George's County. They are concerned that there may be other victims. Anyone with information regarding this suspect or additional victims is asked to call the Special Victims Investigations Division at 240-773-5050.

Strong-arm rape reported in Rockville

Rockville City police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape on Rockville Pike yesterday morning, June 25, 2022. The sexual assault was reported in the 200 block of Rockville Pike at 5:00 AM Saturday, according to crime data.

Rockville man charged in rape of 16-year-old girl near Lakewood ES

Caden Isaiah Riley

Montgomery County police officers with the Special Victims Investigation Division have arrested a Rockville man after a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped Saturday night. Rockville City and Montgomery County police responded to a Rockville home Saturday at 8:30 PM, where the teen victim stated she had just been raped. She told police that the alleged perpetrator had been riding a bike on a pedestrian bridge near Lakewood Elementary School, where he allegedly attacked her.

Officers searched the area and located Caden Isaiah Riley, 18, of Rockville. After interviewing him, and executing a search warrant at his home, they obtained items of value to the case and determined there was sufficient evidence to charge him in the assault. Riley was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree rape, and one count of first-degree assault. Police did not indicate his bond status.

Strong-arm rape and robbery reported in Derwood

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape and robbery at a home in Derwood on Sunday afternoon, March 6, 2022. The incident was reported at a home in the 16200 block of Carnegie Avenue at 4:05 PM, according to crime data. No further information is available at this time.

Strong-arm rape reported in Rockville

Montgomery County police officers responded to a report of a strong-arm rape in Rockville early Thursday night, October 21, 2021. The sexual assault was reported in the 100 block of Gibbs Street at Rockville Town Square, according to crime data. No further details have been made public at this time.

Strong-arm rape reported at Rockville park

City of Rockville police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape at a city park on Sunday afternoon, October 17, 2021. The rape was reported at a park in the 14500 block of Avery Road at 5:00 PM. That appears to be RedGate Park.

Strong-arm rape reported at Rockville hotel

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape at a hotel in Rockville Tuesday night. The assault was reported at a hotel in the 9900 block of Medical Center Drive around 8:36 PM, according to crime data.

Strong-arm rape reported in Rockville

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape in Rockville on Monday morning, February 22, 2021. The sexual assault was reported in the 600 block of Jefferson Plaza around 10:44 AM, according to crime data.

Strong-arm rape reported at Rockville nursing home

City of Rockville police responded to a report of a strong-arm rape at a nursing home yesterday morning. The sexual assault was reported at a nursing home in the 1200 block of Potomac Valley Road around 8:57 AM, according to crime data.

Strong arm rape reported at Rockville bus stop

A strong-arm rape was reported to Rockville police Saturday evening. The assault was reported at a bus stop in the 1700 block of Rockville Pike around 8:00 PM, according to crime data.

Montgomery Village rape suspect sketch released

Montgomery County police have released a sketch of the Montgomery Village rape suspect, the latest incident made public as reports of rape continue to surge in the County. Detectives report that the white male suspect followed a woman after she got off a Ride On bus in the 19300 block of Watkins Mill Road Saturday night, April 20, around 10:15 PM. Realizing the man was following her, the victim began to run. The suspect then knocked the woman down, dragged her into a grassy area by the nearby woods, raped her, and fled.

The victim went home, and then to a local hospital, where the police were called. She identified the suspect to detectives as a white male in his late 20s, with brown hair. She said he is approximately 6-feet-tall, and weighs about 180 pounds. The suspect also has a tattoo behind his left ear, and was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. Based on the sketch, the sweatshirt has a hood.

Detectives are asking anyone who recognizes the suspect or who may have information about this rape to call the Special Victims Investigations Division at 240-773-5050.  Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to their line that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this crime.

Reports of rape skyrocketed by 53% in mid-2018, according to an official police department memo submitted to the County Council. Police recently reported that rapes had spiked 28% by the end of 2018. The County Council has been silent on the surge in rapes in Montgomery County, and their allies in the local press colluded to silence the topic during the 2018 Council election. I was outspoken on the importance of the issue during the campaign, and my words have been vindicated by the continued increase in reports of rape.

Wake up, folks! Public indifference, and the propagandizing Pravda-style media coverage of County government, are perhaps the biggest challenges we face. The people of Montgomery County need to avail themselves of the information being provided by this Suburban News Network website, start asking why the Council has failed to take action, and begin intelligently voting for councilmembers who will actually take the problem of violence against women seriously.

Rockville man arrested in Twinbrook rape

Montgomery County police have arrested a suspect in the alleged rape of a teenage girl near the Twinbrook Metro station Monday night. Malachi Peter Raymond, 21, of Autumn Wind Way in Rockville, has been charged with the second-degree rape of a 17-year-old female.

Detectives say Raymond began conversing with the girl when they were both on a Metrobus sometime before 6:30 PM Monday evening. When the bus arrived at Twinbrook Metro station, Raymond and the girl walked to a parking garage at 5701 Fishers Lane. In a sixth-level stairwell of the garage, Raymond attempted to kiss the girl, and she rebuffed his advances, police say. Raymond then allegedly raped the victim. Afterword, detectives say, he then walked the victim back to the Metro station.

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Raymond was identified by the victim and surveillance camera footage. He was arrested last night at his home without incident.

King Farm man arrested in Rockville rape

Montgomery County police have arrested and charged the suspect in a Rockville rape. An adult female victim was grabbed while walking just after midnight along Route 355 on October 3, and was pulled into the woods along West Gude Drive, where she was sexually assaulted. She managed to break free and run to a nearby office building,, where a security guard called police.

Detectives from the Special Victims Investigations Division determined Dustin Thomas Rogers, 25, was the suspect. Officers went to his home on Gaither Road in King Farm around 6:00 PM last night, and arrested him without incident.

Rogers has been charged with 1st degree rape and 1st degree assault.  He was also charged with a separate count of 1st degree assault via a warrant stemming from an unrelated event. Rogers is being held without bond and will have bond review today at 1:00 p.m. in Rockville District Court.

Incidents of rape in Montgomery County are up 53% this year.

Rape in Rockville

Just days after Montgomery County reported a 53% spike in rapes this year, a suspect has been arrested in a July 28 rape case in Rockville. Terrance D. Zimmerman, 27, of Chesley Knoll Court in Gaithersburg, was arrested Wednesday, and has been charged with the first-degree rape of an adult female victim.

The victim met Zimmerman and a second person at the Rockville Metro station on July 28, and exhanged words and phone numbers. She then accompanied Zimmerman to the rear of a home on MacArthur Drive. At that point, Zimmerman allegedly pulled out a folding knife and placed it at the victim's throat, and proceeded to rape her.

She reported the alleged rape to police two days later on July 30. Police were able to use phone calls, texts, and Metro surveillance video to identify and locate the suspect. Zimmerman is being held without bond.

Police searching for Gaithersburg rapist

Montgomery County police detectives are seeking the public's help in identifying and apprehending the suspect in a Gaithersburg rape. On March 16, just after 1:00 AM, Montgomery County and Gaithersburg police responded to the report of a rape in the 100 block of Park Avenue.

A 27-year-old woman told police she was surprised by a hoodie-wearing Latino man as she entered her home. The man allegedly raped her inside the home, and then fled on foot.

Detectives say the man's hoodie was black with a white fleece lining. He was also wearing dark jeans, and had a thin mustache. The suspect was approximately 5'9", and police have released a composite image of the alleged rapist.

Detectives are asking anyone who recognizes the suspect or who may have information about this rape to call the Special Victims Investigations Division at 240-773-5050.  Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to their line that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this crime.

Acquitted Rockville HS rape suspect thinks he can get a green card

Jose Montano, the supposedly-17-year-old illegal immigrant who was charged in the Rockville High School rape case last spring, has plead guilty to a child pornography charge related to the incident, according to the Washington Post. Montano and a second suspect in the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old female student, Henry Sanchez, were charged with possessing photos and video of the victim after Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy made the bizarre declaration that he would not prosecute either man on rape charges.

"Only a fraction of the offenders are punished." 

- Barack Obama, 2014

McCarthy never provided any tangible evidence to support his assertion that he could not pursue the rape case, never addressed the substantial volume of forensic evidence detectives stated they had collected in the school bathroom where the alleged attack took place, and never stated that the victim had recanted her original account to police. The victim was thrown under the bus by County officials, who joined local media in a round of unprecedented victim-shaming, summing up their version of the case as, "she was asking for it."

"It’s there when you’re forced to sit in the same class or stay in the same dorm with the person who raped you; when people are more suspicious of what you were wearing or what you were drinking, as if it’s your fault, not the fault of the person who assaulted you."

- Barack Obama, 2014

The fact is, not a shred of evidence has been proffered by anyone that proves a gang rape did not occur, nor that the victim is no longer seeking justice in her case. Notably, the victim was never charged with filing a false report. County officials never even stated if they had verified the two men are actually the ages they claim to be - yet both may have avoided prosecution on statutory rape as a result. As it is, they skated on statutory rape charges thanks to the dirty old men who serve in the Maryland General Assembly, who have made the law such that a college student can now have legal sex with a 14-year-old. Sick.

"Understand that if someone does not or cannot consent to sex, it's rape.

Never blame the victim."

- Barack Obama, 2014 

Eager to capitalize on anti-Trump feelings in Montgomery County for sympathy, Montano's attorneys allowed Post reporter Dan Morse to observe the proceedings Friday in Montgomery County Juvenile Court. What's perhaps as troubling as the evidence-free acquittal, are the suggestions by Montano's attorney that the judge "may ultimately release Montano to his relatives," and that "he has a chance to get a green card."

Let's recap here: Two grown men sneak into United States. Are intercepted by Border Patrol. Should be sent back, but because of Obama-era policy, are instead allowed to live with relatives until a court hearing can be held in a backlogged court. Incredibly, both men enroll as "freshmen" at Rockville HS. They proceed to either gang rape, or have consensual sex with, a 14-year-old "classmate" in a school bathroom. The girl immediately reports she has been raped to the police. McCarthy announces he won't prosecute either man. Both men now believe...they should be given residency status?

Hell, no.

Release Montano to relatives? Hell, no.

Both of these men have ICE detainers on them, and should be deported immediately. Montano has his next hearing August 16; Sanchez is due in court on his own porn charges October 30. If both men are not greeted shortly after their hearings by ICE agents with restraining devices, Montgomery County officials should be held fully responsible.

According to the Post report, Montano's attorney David Wooten says Montano now knows he "needs to respect girls more." Just makes you want to give this sensitive clown a green card, right?

Get him the hell out.

The only thing as shocking as the outcome of the rape case, and the delusions of the two aliens in custody, is the absence of outrage by advocates for rape victims in the County and region about the total lack of transparency in this case. Nobody gave a damn about this girl. Montgomery County officials who have declared the two men innocent aren't facing questions or criticism, much less the recall effort facing the judge in the infamous Stanford rape case.

"It’s a haunting presence when the very people entrusted with your welfare fail to protect you."

- Barack Obama, 2014

This is interesting, instructive, and again illuminates that Montgomery County officials - and their political allies - are held above the law. Both the Montgomery County Council and the Bell, California City Council raised their own salaries to obscene levels, while raising taxes on their constituents to record levels. Both councils also slammed their constituents with millions of dollars in highly-suspect and capricious traffic tickets.

Bell's Council is in prison. Montgomery County's Council is running for reelection.

Rockville rape suspect freed after prosecutors drop rape charge

Henry Sanchez

Rockville High School gang rape suspect Jose Montano has been released by a Montgomery County judge, after prosecutors dropped rape charges against him in the alleged March 16 attack in a school bathroom. According to Fox 5, prosecutors are now going to pursue child pornography charges against Montano in juvenile court (he had been charged as an adult in the rape case).

Earlier this morning, the Washington Post reported that rape charges against the second suspect, Henry Sanchez, would also be dropped. The Post reported that he, too, would face child pornography charges, for having images of the alleged rape victim that were forwarded to him by Montano.

What we are not hearing, are the specifics regarding why prosecutors dropped the charges. Whatever evidence they are working with has obviously not been made public. Dropping the charges means the public is essentially being told a violent sexual encounter between a 14-year-old girl and two men in a school bathroom was a consensual and legal act. That is hard to believe, as Sanchez's defense attorney acknowledged to the Post. The public has a right to know what is going on here, in regard to the justification for dropping charges.

Equally important: If Montano is indeed being released, will he be arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)? ICE has declined to comment publicly on Montano, citing his age. But both Montano and Sanchez were detained by the Border Patrol after illegally entering the U.S. last year, and set free to family members under the Obama administration's "Catch and Release" policy. ICE did place a detainer on Sanchez. Will the County alert ICE to Montano's release, and Sanchez's release, should it occur?

Stay tuned.

Rockville rape suspect in court today; defense claims rape charge will be dropped

Rockville High School gang rape suspect Henry Sanchez is scheduled to be in court today to face charges in the alleged March 16 attack in a school bathroom. Sanchez's attorney, Andrew Jezic, has told the Washington Post that prosecutors told him they are dropping the rape case against Sanchez. Prosecutors have not publicly confirmed that report as of press time.

Should the charge be dropped, it would raise serious questions about the prosecution of this case. As defense attorneys engaged in victim shaming, prosecutors seemed to suggest that Sanchez's alleged role in the attack was the more egregious. Even if a consensual encounter in a school bathroom had been planned between the victim and alleged rapist Jose Montano (and no evidence has been made public to support that contention), that did not mean the victim had agreed Sanchez could participate, prosecutors argued.

If their case against Sanchez falls apart today, then, where does that leave the victim and the case against Montano? As for Sanchez, the Post reports prosecutors will pursue a child pornography case against him, for possessing photos of the victim that were forwarded to him by Montano.

Regardless of the outcome of the case, Sanchez faces immediate deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), unless Montgomery County politicians help him escape by not honoring the ICE detainer. Both Sanchez and Montano are in the country illegally.

Protesters gather at first MoCo BOE meeting since Rockville HS rape reported

Protesters gathered yesterday outside the first Montgomery County Board of Education meeting since the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old girl at Rockville High School on March 16. Angered to find that such an important incident was nowhere to be found on the meeting agenda, protesters and political candidates called for the immediate resignation of Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith. 

VIDEO: Rally highlights

"Our schools are overcrowded, undisciplined, low-achieving havens for violent street gangs," said Tom Ferleman, a candidate for the Montgomery County Council's District 2 seat. "The entire nation now knows us for the alleged rape of a child." Ferleman was one of those asking for Smith to resign.

Superintendent Jack Smith confers
with Board of Education member
Patricia O'Neill moments before
last  night's meeting began

After rally organizers held a press conference outside the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville, several participants went inside to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting. Edward Amatetti, a teacher and also a candidate for Montgomery County Council District 2, said the gang rape was "not an isolated [incident]." He referred to the recently-revealed assault on a 17-year-old female student, which was covered up by Rockville HS school administrators and not reported initially to police nine days prior to the gang rape incident. The victim and her stepfather were given a "weeklong runaround" by the school and police, Amatetti charged.

Amatetti said a Latino immigrant father told him that he pulled his daughter out of Rockville H.S. after observing suspicious activities by students there. "He knew what he was seeing, even if school leaders didn't," Amatetti said, an allusion to the principal's recent denial of gang activity at the school. He recalled another Rockville H.S. parent telling him that his son was warned by a teacher to "keep his mouth shut in class," because members of the MS-13 gang were in that class. That teacher said he also was afraid of MS-13 himself.

The Board has been "too silent" on the gang rape incident, Amatetti said. He singled out Smith, telling him "your responses have been inadequate."

Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Dick Jurgena pressed the Board as to "why illegal alien men, who come from a completely-different culture and have no apparent educational training, are mixed with students as young as 13 or 14 years of age. How these two young men came to be enrolled in the county school system, and in the freshman class, raises many questions."

After their critics spoke, some on the Board were less than contrite. Patricia O'Neill, who is about to celebrate her 20th year on the Board, said the alleged gang rape was "shocking to all of us," and "horrifying. But I do not have facts," she hedged. Then, like several other county officials over the last two weeks, her voice suggested the public criticism of Smith and the BOE was a bigger issue than the rape itself. Raising her voice, O'Neill complained she has "truly been troubled by the harassing, threatening emails and phone calls," apparently oblivious to the fact that that very focus on politics, instead of the crime itself, has been driving many of those communications.

While O'Neill hasn't been heard raising her voice against violence against 14 and 17-year-old girls in school, she said that while watching a Fox News segment on the rape, "by the time the show was over, I was shouting at the T.V. Fake news has triggered this avalanche of vitriol."

It was also intriguing that Board member Jill Ortman-Fause said the emails and phone calls had "raised the level of anxiety in our schools," as opposed to the threat of rape or violence being the source of anxiety. "A lot of them are threats, and have to be reported to the police," she said, before taking time to congratulate staff. Board member Rebecca Smondrowski chose to reprise Councilmember Roger Berliner's infamously tone-deaf assessment of the gang rape: "Bad things happen." Oops.

Board President Michael Durso appeared to endorse the vitriolic remarks of a speaker during the public comment period who lashed out at those criticizing the school system, accusing them of being racists and using the rape incident and immigration status of the suspects for political gain. Neither the speaker nor Durso appeared to realize that MCPS and the Montgomery County Council have already politicized immigration, including many public statements, issuing resolutions and hiring an expensive immigration attorney with no clear Montgomery County-oriented purpose. No other jurisdiction in the area retains a specialized expensive immigration lawyer other than Montgomery County.

Perhaps in response to criticism over leaving the rape case off the agenda, Smith outlined the general security topics he and the system will review in the coming weeks:

• How to utilize existing security personnel
• How to allocate security resources
• Review all facilities, and look at "places in schools where we could do changes in facilities"
• Increase the number of entry checkpoints
• Review how existing security cameras are used and monitored
• Get student input
• Add a curriculum "component" on "harassment, inappropriate sexual advances, and assault"

"I cannot express to our community how serious we are about this," Smith assured. But, examining this list, it sounds like a checklist one would already have gone over every six months or so in the post-Columbine/9/11 era. Is this really the first time this basic sort of list is being considered in such a large school system? That's cause for real concern by itself.

The pattern in the county has been just that - addressing basic, fundamental problems only after a catastrophic failure. This is how the County Council has operated for years. 911 system fails? Now we'll take a look at the backup systems. Flower Branch Apartments explode? Now we'll step up code inspections of apartment buildings. Did they just put county residents' email addresses online for hackers to steal from the Open Data website? Now Hans Riemer will draft a provision that should have been in his original legislation to protect residents.

It's time for new leadership, who can take a back-to-basics approach to the issues and services government should be focused on, instead of styrofoam, vending machines and teenage tanning beds.

Agenda for first Board of Education meeting since Rockville HS rape has no mention of the incident

The Montgomery County Board of Education will meet for the first time tomorrow, March 30, since the March 17th announcement by police alleging a gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at Rockville High School. Yet the meeting agenda makes no mention of the incident, nor of any planned discussion of immediate steps Montgomery County Public Schools should take to prevent something like this from happening again. This is absolutely mindboggling, given that policies and security lapses by MCPS and the Board allowed this alleged rape to occur. They've had two weeks to plan this agenda, and it appears the amount of thought they've given to student safety speaks for itself. Disgusting.

A protest of citizens demanding accountability is scheduled outside the Board offices, the Carver Educational Services Center, at 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville tomorrow at 5:15 PM.