A 19-year-old man is facing charges in connection with the carjacking and rape of a woman at Metrorail’s Largo Town Center parking garage.
He was arrested after being picked up in the same stolen car a week after the carjacking in the same garage, according to the transit agency. Police say they found him with a missing 13-year-old girl and charged him with sexually assaulting her as well, court documents show.
The carjackings, robberies and sexual assaults since January 2009 happened in the following Metro parking facilities, (bold indicates no video cameras):
» Deanwood
New Carrollton
Franconia-Springfield
Largo Town Center
College Park
West Falls Church
Suitland
Southern Avenue
Landover
Shady Grove
Branch Avenue
Congress Heights
Rhode Island Avenue
Minnesota Avenue
Wheaton
Capitol Heights
Jonathan David Duffy faces 39 charges, including first-degree rape, armed carjacking and robbery with a deadly weapon, court records show.
Such cases are rare in the Metro system, according to the transit agency. Last year, Metro said it had three carjackings and two sexual assaults in its garages and parking lots. It reported 25 robberies in parking facilities last year, and six this year amid a rise in robberies throughout the system.
Metro did not alert the public about the February attacks at Largo. Its online police blotters were months out of date until recently. “Unfortunately, it was something that slipped through the cracks,” said spokeswoman Cathy Asato.
When the Washington Examiner asked for statistics on such crimes, Asato said she got them from a detective who recalled the carjackings from memory. But when she provided the numbers, they did not include at least one robbery that The Examiner asked about.
The reported carjackings, robberies and sexual assaults have occurred in 16 Metrorail parking facilities, at least eight of which have no security cameras. Asato said 13 of Metro’s parking facilities have cameras, including the Largo garage.
On Feb. 5, the woman was robbed, carjacked and raped after she returned to her car in the garage, according to Metro.
Then on Feb. 11, a Metro Transit Police detective spotted the gold Honda Accord that had been reported stolen the week before, court documents show. The officer found the suspect with a 13-year-old girl who had been missing for two days, court records show.
The girl told police she had had consensual sex with the suspect several times over the two previous days, according to a court document. He told police he did not know her age at the time.
Public defender Betty Stilt declined to comment on the charges as she had just been assigned his case. Duffy could not be reached for comment, as he remained in custody without bond in the Prince George’s County jail.
