Marine faces charged in abduction, rape of N. Virginia woman

A US Marine has been charged with the rape of two Ballston, VA women who he followed home and assaulted at around 4AM on February 27, 2010. 21 year old Jorge "George" Torrez was charged with acts relating to the gunpoint rape and abduction of two women after they returned home from a meal. According to authorities, after Torrez forced them inside of their house, one of the women called 911 and hung up, leading him to flee with the other woman.

4 hours later, that woman was found in Prince William County VA, close to the edge of Marine Corps Base Quantico. Torrez was stationed in Ft. Myer, near the area of the attack. She had been raped, beaten and choked to within inches of her life before being dumped in the woods. Authorities arrested him within hours of the attack.

Arlington police on Friday [June 25] announced that they have charged Torrez with 14 criminal counts related to the North Wakefield Street attack, including abduction, rape, forcible sodomy, robbery, burglary with intent to commit sexual assault and use of a firearm during a felony.

Torrez was already in jail for a second attack which took place February 10, 2010, when he allegedly attempted to abduct a woman at gunpoint near a local high school, but settled for simply grabbing her purse. That attack led to a composite sketch which led to Torrez.

Arlington County spokeswoman Crystal Nosal, a detective, said "If these two cases are connected, there's obviously a clear escalation within two weeks. Two weeks ago the woman convinced him not to take her, and then he confronts two women and leaves one for dead in Prince William County."

Torrez, who joined the Marine Corps at 18 immediately after graduating from high school in Zion, Ill., served in Okinawa, Japan, for two years before moving to Northern Virginia last year, according to his family. He had a lifelong ambition to join the military, an ambition that solidified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, his sister said.

Sara Torrez said her brother has been working at the Pentagon and seemed to be enjoying it, their discussions centering on whether he wanted to continue with a career in the Marine Corps or to leave, go to school and return to Illinois.

Torrez is being held in the Arlington County Jail without bond. His next court appearance was scheduled for July 26, but may be sooner in Prince William County officials file their own charges. Prosecutors are considering bringing attempted capital murder charges against Torrez because it appears that parts of the attack occurred in their jurisdiction and the attack included rape.

Liberty University professor sentenced to 6 months for groping student in office

A former Liberty University professor was sentenced to 6 months in jail and 5 years suspended by a Lynchburg, VA judge Friday for molesting a 21 year old student of his. Joshua Young Moon, 45 and of Durham, NC, molested a then 21 year old student April 21 while she fell asleep during a massage in his office. Moon, her statistics professor, massaged her to relieve injuries suffered during a car crash.

Before being sentenced, Moon apologized to the woman, her family and his family and friends. Moon’s wife offered tearful testimony on his behalf during the hearing, saying she was still proud of him. She staggered when trying to return to her seat and had to be helped by a deputy.

Moon, 45, of Durham, N.C., said he did not intend to hurt the woman, and asked for forgiveness. He said his only hope now would be to live the rest of his life as a useful member of society. “I wish I could go back and do things differently,” he said.

His defense attorney, Randy Trost, said the "socially naive and sexually inexperienced" professor misinterpreted the woman's massage request and help she got on exams as welcoming the groping. He said that his client's psychological testing indicated a low likelihood of further sexual assaults.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Rebecca Wetzel said that Moon was a sexual predator because he used his influence to do the same thing to two victims present in the courtroom. "This defendant is a minister and held a position of trust and authority at Liberty University." She also said that Moon acted out the bondage and massage porn he stored and viewed on his computer at Liberty University. "The defendant took advantage of the fact he had a sleeping woman in his office to act out a pornographic act,” said Wetzel.

Judge Mosby Perrow ordered Moon, who was behind bars after pleading guilty on January 22, to pay for the woman's counseling, serve 2 years of supervised probation, and register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment. He was also orderd to have no contact with the victim or children outside of his family. “If I could give you five years for what you’ve done to your wife, I would give you five years for that, too,”  he said.

Former police officer sentenced to year behind bars for assaulting woman

On Thursday, October 29, a former police officer was sentenced to a year in prison with 14 more years suspended for sexually assaulting a 18 year old woman that he knew. Ronald M. Hendrickson, 47, a former Newport News police lieutenant, was sentenced Thursday in York-Poquoson Circuit Court by Substitute Judge Thomas Nance. After the prison time, Hendrickson must register as a sex offender and seek sex offender treatment at his own expense, and stay away from the Internet, with a polygraph to monitor this condition. If Hendrickson violates any supervision conditions, then "I'm going to give you the other 14 years," Judge Nance promised.

Last month, Hendrickson pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of object sexual penetration as part of a pre-arranged agreement. In exchange, Simantov dropped felony charges of possession of child pornography, filming a non-consenting nude minor and production of child pornography.

The charges stemmed from the woman's accusation that Hendrickson tried to force himself on her after she rejected advances he made after the pair drank alcohol together.

Early in the case, Simantov declined to prosecute felony charges of abduction and abduction with intent to defile and misdemeanor sexual battery that were brought in conjunction with the accusation. The child pornography charges were filed in April after the discovery of a video that depicted the victim while she was still a minor.

At the time of his arrest, Hendrickson was a patrol supervisor assigned to the Newport News Police Department's South Precinct. His employment with the department ended in February.

 

Hendrickson said that the offense was due to mishandling of job-related stress, particulary the death of a colleague. He has started attending AA meetings, counseling, and reparing his familial relationships. This was echosed by his father, Harold Hendrickson, who said his son told him, "Dad, I feel dead inside. I don't have any emotions."

 

However, Simantov said that the betrayal of trust outweighed any mitigating circumstances. "He's someone who knew what he was doing. He knew it was criminal. He chose to betray his badge."

"Boyfriend" gets 31 years in rape of woman

A 23 year old Covington, VA man was sentenced to 31 years in prison by Alleghany County Circuit Court Judge Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo Tuesday, October 6. Jonathan Travis Switzer was sentenced on charges of rape, carjacking, abduction with the intent to defile, violation of a protective order and assault and battery of a law enforcement officer.

Switzer's sentencing came after a preliminary hearing in which while his victim was testifying, Switzer halted the courtroom proceedings by saying "Stop it! It's all true! I did it! I did it!" This admission was followed in May by a formal guilty plea to the charges above.

Switzer's brush with the law began June 14, 2008, when he beat his 38-year-old ex-girlfriend, a crime for which he was convicted last year. An emergency protective order was issued telling Switzer to stay away from her, but he began calling her persistently. She went to the magistrate's office to obtain a warrant for his arrest, but Switzer intercepted her on Main Street in Covington, forced her into the back seat of her van and drove to a wooded area, Gardner said.

There, Switzer raped and sodomized his ex-girlfriend and threatened to kill her. She complained of a head injury and asked him to take her to the hospital, which he did, but only on the condition that she not leave his sight or say anything about the rape, Gardner said.

Once at Alleghany Regional Hospital, though, the woman tried to tip off an intake nurse by writing at the bottom of a sign-in sheet, "He raped me. Please help." No one noticed the note, so when the woman went to the restroom to provide a urine sample, she again wrote, this time on a wrapper, "He raped me. Please help." She placed the note with the urine sample but again it was overlooked.

The woman's boyfriend summoned deputies to the hospital after he called the woman on her cellphone and Switzer answered.

The battery of a law enforcement officer charge came after Switzer began throwing food trays at the Alleghany Regional Jail. He fought jailers who tried to stop him.

Ann Gardner, prosecutor, stated that "The judge lowered the boom on him," and the 31 year sentence given to Switzer is the executed part. Judge Trumbo suspended 46 more years in prison.

Former supply officer for Navy SEALS gets 25 years in wife's murder

An ex-Navy officer who beat his wife to death after she threatened to expose his homosexual conduct with other men was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday for 1st degree murder. The 41 year old Michael Lee Everage was sentenced yesterday to the jury-recommended 25 years in prison for beating his wife Robyn to death.

Robyn was killed February 20, 2007, when Michael reported her missing from their Virginia Beach, VA home. Her body was found the next day, next to her SUV. She was 41 when she was murdered. Prosecutors said the motive was that Robyn threatened to expose her husband's gay affair after she learned that he had a second affair with her female friend. Robyn could accept the same sex conduct, but not so much the straight affair.

During a two-week trial in December, authorities said Everage beat his wife to death with a side-view truck mirror, loaded her body into her Toyota Sequoia and drove from their Norfolk home to Shore Drive. He parked the SUV along the shoulder and dragged her body into the woods, staging the scene to appear as if Robyn had gotten out of her vehicle and been hit by a passing truck.

A medical examiner testified she had been struck repeatedly in the back of the head.

Everage's sentencing hearing was delayed for months after his attorneys filed motions for a mistrial and for the judge to set aside the verdict. The motions followed a Virginian-Pilot article that revealed an inmate who testified Everage had confessed to him in jail also had offered to testify in other high-profile cases.

"It's like a dark cloud that never lifts," Robyn's mother, Karen Taylor, said. "I wish we could erase the month of February from the rest of our lives."

Speaking directly to Everage, Taylor said her daughter never would have disclosed his gay affair to Navy officials. Robyn felt betrayed, but she wouldn't have ruined her husband's career because doing so would have hurt their young daughter, as well as Everage's two sons from a previous marriage, her mother said. "She was killed for nothing."

Robyn's brother, Rod Taylor, also took the witness stand. He chastised Everage, describing him as a coward and a hypocrite for leading Bible study sessions in jail. "You lived a selfish life," he told Everage, "and the death of my sister was the ultimate selfish act."

The presiding judge in the case was Circuit Judge Stephen C. Mahan. Everage plans to appeal the conviction.

Former Navy Chaplain sentenced to 10 years for sexual exploitation of young female sailors

Former Navy Chaplain Lt. Shane Dillman was sentenced to 10 years in prison and discharge from the Navy for taking sexual advantage of young Navy sailors he was supposed to be ministering to. The sentence, handed down yesterday by Capt. Moira Modzelewski, must be affirmed by the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic Rear Adm. Richard O'Hanlon.

Dillman admitted to multiple affairs with women but pleaded not guilty to rape, fraternization, and making a threat. After a 4 day trial, only the making a threat charge led to a not guilty verdict.

Dillman, a married father of three, was a Pentecostal minister endorsed by the Coalition of Spirit-Filled Churches. He has been on administrative duty since the charges were filed.
Charles Gittins, his civilian lawyer, said before sentencing that Dillman, 37, had been affected by ministering to more than 800 injured Marines while stationed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

A defense witness, psychologist Don Lewittes, said Dillman likely suffered from "vicarious traumatization," and began feeling dead inside. The sex was a means of trying to feel alive, Lewittes theorized.

When Dillman spoke at his sentencing hearing, he apoligozed to his family, the Navy, and God, saing that it was an honor to have served as a chaplain for a dozen years.

Lt. j.g. Bill Geraty said that the a sentenced in Dillman's statement, "I'm sorry the circumstances have taken ministry opportunities away from me," showed that the defendant showed a lack of remorse and a focus on his own losses, not the impact of the crime on the victims. Geraty also explained that the pattern of friendship leading to sexual involvement was "not a case of 'Whoops, I stepped over the line.'

"This was calculated...When Marines and sailors go to a chaplain for solace," he said, "they do not expect to enter the wolf's lair."

Waynesboro' VA man pleads to attempted murder of "girlfriend"

Sam Wesley Earhart, 43, of Waynesboro, VA, plead guilty Wednesday, September 24, to shooting his then girlfriend, Susan Keith, on May 7. According to Thomas H. Weidner IV, Waynesboro's assistant prosecutor, Earhart plead to malicious wounding, burglary with the intent to murder, felony weapons possession, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and assault and battery of a law enforcement officer.

Keith was face-down on a sofa when Earhart shot her. The plastic-encased bullet traveled between bone and skin before exiting Keith's skull. Bullet fragments found in her skull and in the apartment matched bullets loaded in the pistol found alongside Earhart inside the gold Plymouth Acclaim that he drove from the apartment. The car belonged to Keith.

When authorities arrived at the apartment at 9:25 a.m., they found her covered in blood but conscious, police said.

Keith initially believed she had been struck in the head, not shot, she testified in Waynesboro General District Court in July. She was treated at Augusta Medical Center and the University of Virginia Medical Center, Widener said.

Police followed Earhart along North Delphine Avenue to Whippoorwill Way.

After that, Earhart lead them on a drunken, 2 mile chase. After the arrest, he spat on an officer. Earhart's criminal record, which dates back 20 years, includes forgery, burglary, and assault charges. His latest conviction, which took place in 2006, was for meth possession and marijuana distribution, for which he served 3 months in jail and was on 5 years of unsupervised probation.

Earhart faced two life sentences. The plea agreement was heard in Waynesboro Circuit Court Judge Humes J. Franklin's courtroom.

Former Virginia Sheriff's deputy sentenced to 2 1/4 years in federal prison

Greene County, VA deputy Leftery N. "Terry" Tsouroutis will serve a 27 month sentence for various sex and drug charges stemming from incidents in 2002. He will report to a low security Florida prison on June 13 to serve his term.

The sex charge stems from taking a 19 year old drug informant across state lines to have sex with her. Other charges include lying to the FBI, and a one year sentence to serve (5 years total, 4 of them suspended) for selling a firearm to a felon. This charge stems from bartering a firearm to a felon for payment for work on a Jeep. Tsuoroutis will also serve 2 years of probation and 200 hours of community service. The community service charge, according to Circuit Judge John R. Cullen was an attempt to pay back the community for breach of trust by law enforcement.

George S. Webb III, Madison County commonwealth's attorney, was a special prosecutor in the case. Although Tsouroutis expressed remorse in court, Webb said a probation officer's report showed he didn't accept responsibility for what he had done. Webb recommended a sentence similar to that Tsouroutis received, except the year in prison would have been served consecutively to his federal sentence.

"Those that enforce the law are not above the law," Webb said in court.

In the summer of 2002, police were alerted to a homemade sex tape featuring Tsouroutis and a 19-year-old drug informant. In February 2002, Tsouroutis had driven to Baltimore with another officer to pick up a female prisoner. Police said he later told her he would "take care of her charges" if she had sex with him, which she did for money for more than three months.

His wife, Kelly Tsouroutis, met him [back in 2004] when she worked at the Greene Sheriff's Office. She testified Wednesday that she knew he had gone through a bad period in his personal life, but their time together has been positive.

"Since 2003, everything has been so great as far as I'm concerned," Kelly Tsouroutis said in court. "We have hobbies, a family."

Defense attorney Lloyd Snook said Terry Tsouroutis' case was unusual because the state gun charge was levied after federal prosecutors had discussed making it part of the federal case. The charge also happened in the same jurisdiction and time period as the federal case. The attorney requested that his sentence be served concurrently, in part because he wouldn't get any more rehabilitation from a state facility after about two years in a federal penitentiary.

"I think it's fair to say that Terry Tsouroutis is going to keep his nose very clean from here on out," Snook said.

University of Virginia rapist pleads guilty - faces 40 years

Christopher Allen Noakes, 39, a UVa rapist and assaulter of women will spend 40 years in prison due to a plea agreement to 2 counts of forcible sodomy for an attempted rape which occured February 21. Judge Edward L. Hogshire, of the Charlottesville Circuit Court, accepted the plea agreement, and keeps Noakes from spending possibly the rest of his life in prison. Both prosecutors and Noakes’ public defender praised the agreement.

“A 40 year sentence is a very decent amount of time,” Assistant Commonwealth’s attorney Katherine J. Peters said in court.

“It sends a strong message to the community that this will not be tolerated,” added Nicholas Reppucci, assistant public defender.

Noakes was previously convicted of kidnapping a 19 year old student back in the 1980s, and beating a 35 year old UVa employee as she was getting into her car. This happened 3 days after release from a juvenile facility in Richmond where he had been place for attempted rape.

The last incident occurred February 21, when a sophomore UVa student was talking to a friend on a cell phone. Noakes walked up behind her, held a knife to her throat, and demanded money. The woman’s friend, on the other end of the phone, called 911 to describe what was happening. Noakes ordered to woman to strip and attempted to rape her, but the attack caught a neighbor’s attention, and the victim was able to get that neighbor to call 911.

“She felt the person was bound to call 911 and assist her,” Peters said.

Police arrived to find Noakes on top of the woman, but he jumped up and ran until officers arrested him in the 500 block of 14th Street Northwest. The victim was taken to the UVa Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries.

The plea deal calls for a 40 year prison sentence and dropping charges of abduction with the intent to defile, intent to rape, and robbery. The judge has the discretion to order an additional suspended term consecutive to the prison sentence when formal sentencing occurs on August 21. Reppucci said that there were multiple reasons why Noakes decided to plead guilty, including “start[ing] the healing process for the victim.” He is curreltly being held at the Albermarle-Charlottsville regional jail.

Fiance arrested for allegedly spiking woman's drink, raping her

Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail is currently holding 23 year old Timothy James Hoffman, who is being charged with forcible object sexual penetration for the May 17 sexual assault of his fiancée after a Madonna themed party at a local dance club.

The victim stumbled upon a videotape among her “fiancé’s" belongings. She watched herself being sexually assaulted while being passed out. That tape also showed Hoffman taking cell phone photos of his victim. She recognized the outfit from the night of the Madonna themed party, and police recognized the victim as completely helpless.

The victim told police that she had two drinks and began to feel ill. She asked Hoffman to drive her back to his residence on Goodman Street. Upon arriving, the only thing she could remember was vomiting in his yard and in his bathroom, according to the court documents.

“[The victim] does not remember anything but being very sick,” Detective Nicholas Rudman of the Charlottesville Police Department wrote in a search warrant affidavit.

“I viewed the video and observed [the victim] saying ‘no’ and she appeared completely helpless,” he wrote.

Hoffman and the victim had recently obtained a marriage license, [Charlottesville police spokesman Ric] Barrick said.

Charlottesville police searched Hoffman’s apartment Wednesday and confiscated a long list of items, including 17 videotapes, 15 compact discs, three pornography magazines, cut up Polaroid photographs, a Sony camcorder, computer disks, two cell phones and an Apple computer, according to the court documents.

Hoffman has petty criminal convictions, including DUI, trespassing, stealing from vending machines, and petty larceny. He had been ordered to enroll in the Bridge Ministry, a Central VA nonprofit prison ministry, but failed to complete the program, according to the program’s founder.

Rapist sentenced for attack on victim found drowned by seprate killer a month later

A rapist who attacked a woman who was later killed by a separate attacker in another part of Virginia was sentenced to 12 years for her rape. Jimmy Joe Stapleton was sentenced to 12 years in prison for Christa Brae Hart's rape and assault back in 2002.

On its face, Judge J. Kerry Blackwood’s sentence today concludes a case that has dragged along for five and a half years. A jury in January convicted Stapleton without the testimony of Hart, who was found drowned a month after she reported the assault. But the courtroom wrangling may continue.

Stapleton’s defense attorney, David Mullins, has filed a motion for a new trial and is leaving open the possibility of an appeal. Hart’s mother and grandmother, who were present at today’s sentencing, had hoped for a longer prison sentence for Stapleton. The trial has badly frayed the nerves of the two women, and the possibility of an appeal left them disheartened. “This is never going to end,” said Mickie McSwain, Hart’s mother.

Charles Theodore Stiltner Sr. will be on trial beginning in Jjune for Hart's Virginia murder. He is charged with 2nd degree murder .

Teens arrested, charged with rape of woman

Two teens, one 17, and one 14, were charged with the rape of a woman in the SE Virginia city of Newport News on January 22. After coming from a store, the boys allegedly confronted her with a gun. One raped her and the other alegedly took CD's and other stuff. The 17 year old was charged with rape, robbery, burglary, using a gun in commission of a felony and related charges. The 14 year old boy fled to Florida, where he was arrested on charges of robbery and burglary.

FBI agent sentenced in abduction of girlfriend

A FBI agent who once headed up the bureau's Toledo office will be going to prison for 6 years after being sentenced March 12. A further decade sentence was suspended.

The prison time is part of a ten-year suspended sentence handed down Tuesday in Arlington County Circuit. Carl Spicocchi, 55, pleaded guilty in December two counts of abduction and using a firearm while committing a felony.He was on a temporary assignment in Washington at the time of the attack last August at the woman's apartment in Crystal City.

Court records say Spicocchi believed the woman was cheating on him. The woman told authorities she was held for six hours and was wrapped in tape, dragged by her hair, beaten and threatened with a knife and a gun before she escaped.

Virginia serial rapist sentenced to life

Nathan Antonio Washington a serial rapist who preyed on Virginia women for as long as 10 years, was sentenced to four life terms plus 20 years Tuesday.

Before the judge imposed sentence, Washington stood in court and said that he took responsibility for his actions. He also apologized to his victims, his family and to the Charlottesville community, and asked for divine forgiveness.

"I didn’t mean for these things to happen they way they did," Washington said, his voice breaking.

"I had no self-control. I always thought I was good, until I was tempted."

In many cases, Washington broke into the victims' homes and attacked them, and it is believed he stalked his victims before the burglaries.

According to the Charlotteville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman, some victims have recovered amazingly well, others are stil struggling.

In court, Chapman read from a statement one victim provided in which she explained that, nearly nine years after she was raped, she still battles daily bouts of fear and anxiety.
“I never sleep in the dark, never go outside alone,” the victim wrote.

She also addressed Washington directly: “I feel like I see you all over.”

Washington pleaded guilty to four attacks in Charlottesville and one in Albemarle County. A sixth attack in Albemarle will not be pursued.

Authorities in Waynesboro are waiting on lab results before deciding whether to prosecute a 1997 rape that has also been attributed to the serial rapist, a prosecutor there said Monday.
Before he was sentenced, Washington also asked for divine forgiveness and asked God to bless his victims and family.

The sentences were part of a plea deal which requires him to give information on other rapes he may have committed, while prosecutors promise not to bring any more charges.

Crimestoppers gave a $60,000 reward to the person whose tip lead to his arrest and conviction. This tipster is though to be a victim who was raped back in 2004 who provided a license plate number which led to Washington.

Investigators then took a covert sample of his DNA that matched DNA left behind by the serial rapist.

18 year old woman raped on VA island

An 18 year old woman was allegedly raped by a similar aged male suspect in Virginia
The incident happened in a mobile home in one of Chincoteague's mobile home parks, but the victim, who is not an island resident, couldn't positively identify the location, said State Trooper B.E. Lewis on Friday.

According to the Salisbury, MD Daily Times,

The man is described as a white male between the ages of 15 and 20 years old, with brown eyes and short brown hair. He is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 150 pounds.
Lewis said he has a possible first name of Jason or Justin. "We're trying to find out who this guy is," said Lewis, adding that he wasn't being charged at this time.
"This guy is just wanted for questioning," he said. "We know it happened here in a trailer park."

The victim, who is 18, was with a friend on the island. She reported the assault on Wednesday and had medical tests performed, Lewis said.

A State Police computerized composite was prepared using the man's facial features, he said.

People with information about the man's identity or location are asked to call 800-582-8350 or 757-787-5813.

Source:

Man Wanted For Questioning After Alleged VA Rape