A midlevel U.S. Sate Department official from Burke has been accused of raping his family maid while posted at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court said.
David E. Fountain was taken into custody Thursday and had continued to work for the Foreign Service since the allegations first arose in April, court documents said. According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, the 49-year-old raped the 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.” Fountain is being prosecuted in the United States because the alleged incident occurred on U.S. property.
A State Department spokesman referred questions to the U.S. Justice Department, which declined to comment.
In early May, Fountain was questioned by U.S. law enforcement officials about the “allegation that he raped his family’s maid in government provided housing in Bangkok,” prosecutors said in court documents.
At that point, authorities say, Fountain signed a written statement admitting to having sex with his maid, but claiming it was consensual. The officials did not press charges at the time, and Fountain asked for and received a room on the 16th floor of a Bangkok hotel. Inside, he wrote a will and then jumped from the window.
But he survived, crashing onto the heavily insulated roof above the hotel’s 10th-floor spa, court documents said.
Fountain was brought back to the United States to recover from his injuries and he is now healthy, his attorney Andrew Carroll told The Examiner.
Last month, authorities say, the alleged victim was contacted by someone who claimed to be calling on Fountain’s behalf. The person reportedly told the maid he knew Fountain from a gym. He told the woman Fountain had e-mailed him and asked him to ask her if she was pregnant and needed any cash. Prosecutors have asked — but not yet obtained — access to Fountain’s private e-mail account, court documents said.
Carroll questioned why prosecutors have waited eight months to press charges.
“The whole thing seems strange to me,” he said.
