The Baltimore City man accused of raping a woman behind a Linthicum Light Rail Station on Tuesday walked out of Anne Arundel Circuit Court last week after a judge dropped indecent exposure charges.
“The state believes very strongly that the case was incorrectly dismissed,” said Kristin Riggin, spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel State?s Attorney?s Office.
Eugene Waller, 49, of 215 Greenmount Ave., allegedly masturbated in front of a woman on the light rail.
However Judge Michele Jaklitsch dismissed the case based on a venue issue because the woman departed from the train at the Patapsco stop over the Baltimore City line, Riggin said.
“We provided sufficient evidence that the venue was not an issue because it was a continuing course of action. … now the result is very upsetting for everyone,” Riggin added.
Now a week after the case was dismissed, Waller is accused of grabbing a 22-year-old woman who was waiting on a bench at the Nursery Road Light Rail Station on Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard and dragging her into a wooded area where he held a gun to her neck and raped her, said Sgt. Sara Schriver, spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel police.
The victim managed to free herself, jumped unclothed into the Patapsco River, swam back toward the Light Rail Station and flagged down a passing motorist, who called the police.
Police used a K-9 unit to set up a perimeter and found Waller. He walked toward police with his hands up, but then turned and ran back into the woods. After a brief chase, Waller was found hiding behind a cement block in the Patapsco River, Schriver said.
Waller was charged with first- and second-degree rape, kidnapping, first- and second-degree sex offense, first-degree assault and use of handgun during a commission of a felony.
Police said Waller is registered as a violent offender on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, but his name was not found in a search of the state and national registries, nor was his alias Tony Brown.
Officials said Waller spent more than half of his life in jail for rape, according to a law enforcement official, who would not provide documentation.
This is the first stranger rape reported in Anne Arundel County in 2007, police said.
