Feds want to drop rape charges against State Dept. official

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria have asked a judge to dismiss charges accusing a U.S. State Department official of raping his maid while stationed in Bangkok because the maid will not travel to the United States to testify.

David E. Fountain was taken into custody from his Burke home in December, eight months after his maid accused him of raping her in Fountain’s U.S. Embassy-owned Bangkok apartment. According to an indictment, the 49-year-old Fountain rapedthe victim, referred to only as P.K., by “threatening and placing victim P.K. in fear that she would be subjected to death, serious bodily injury or kidnapping.”