Prosecutors Say Woman Raped on a Metro Train Last Month, Suspect Arrested

by Prince Of Petworth May 24, 2016 at 10:50 am 33 Comments

Suspect in Metro sex assault last month, 39 yo John Hicks, ordered held w/o bond. MTPD arrested hours after incident pic.twitter.com/F3PT4TnX8B

— Metro Transit Police (@MetroTransitPD) May 23, 2016

A reader passes on the horrifying account from the Washington Post:

“A 39-year-old woman was raped at knifepoint on a moving Metro train just before 10 a.m. last month in the Wheaton-Glenmont area of Montgomery County, prosecutors said in court Monday.”

Update from Metro Transit Police:

“Metro GM has directed MTPD to make public notification of any violent crime the same day where doing so will not hinder investigation #wmata”

stacksp

Crazy.. Glad he was caught.
e

How is it that we are just now finding out about this??
- Prince Of Petworth
  
  That’s what a lot of people would like to know!
- Leeran
  
  Good question. It was apparently not reported to the board. Disheartening.
  
  https://twitter.com/corbettprice1/status/734876799495245829
- squish
  
  In a WJLA article, Kevin Lewis got a call from a source on or around May 23rd, which is when it became a news story. Unreal that it took that long for it to make news. And at 10 am, Metro cars are still at least half-full on the red line. Did she get onto an empty Metro car and he was there, or did he move her to another car? UGH, I hope she’s recovering well and doing ok.
  - textdoc
    
    “And at 10 am, Metro cars are still at least half-full on the red line.” — It sounds like her train was in the non-rush-hour direction, though (going from downtown D.C. to Silver Spring/Glenmont). Maybe a train heading in that direction would have few or no people left as it neared the end of the line?
    - squish
      
      Yeah, you are correct. I got turned about. Thanks textdoc!
    - Nathan
      
      Its possible. I do the reverse commute out to Silver Spring, and some days, even closer to rush hour, my train is fairly empty. A lot of people get off at Silver Spring.
      - anon
        
        Seconded. I go out to Rockville sometimes (and have more regularly in the past), usually to arrive around 10am. After Medical Center, I’m frequently alone or at most one of 3-5 people in my car.
transplanted

Raped at rush hour on a moving train and it doesn’t make the news? Jesus fuck!
- Hill Denizen
  
  It was all over the news last night.
  - Truxton Thomas
    
    It happened a month and a half ago.
    - Hill Denizen
      
      Yeah, but I don’t think that’s on the news media. When they found out about it, it was widely reported.
  - transplanted
    
    Yes, it is being reported now. That’s the problem. I’m saying that the crime took place, and the man was arrested, LAST MONTH.
- ExWalbridgeGuy
  
  “Did’t make the news” sounds like you’re saying “the news” knew about it and just didn’t think it was newsworthy. That doesn’t appear to be the case at all.
LittleBluePenguin

Jesus H. Christ! What?! My heart goes out to the victim, and I hope that scumbag rots, but why is this the first we’re hearing of it? I mean, Metro isn’t culpable for this attack, it sounds like everyone did the right thing up until the woman was taken to the hospital, but then why not let us fucking know about it?!
- Lexicon82
  
  + a million
anon

And I think it’s officially time that I bought a car.
- abc
  
  I understands your sentiment but you are still far more likely to get into an accident than you are to become a victim of crime on the metro.
  - Anon Spock
    
    Likelihood vs severity of the event
    I’d take a car accident any day.
    - anon
      
      +1. My commute is in-city and is only 2 miles. I understand that it’s safer to take Metro than it is to drive from a far-out suburb, but for me, I’ll take my chances driving rather than subject myself to the possibility of being stabbed, raped or stuck in a fire. Crime aside, it just also proves to be a much more reliable way of getting to work. Coworkers who take Metro come in at least once a week if not more all grumpy from delays/single tracking, etc.
      - anon
        
        And everyone I know who drives comes in grumpy about traffic basically every day. As long as you’re internalizing the costs of driving (cost of car, gas, parking), do whatever you want. And nobody’s claiming metro doesn’t have problems. But car travel simply isn’t more safe, efficient, cost-effective, or reliable by any broad metrics.
      - Anonymous
        
        If you’re physically capable of it, you may want to try a bike. Especially if you have good bike lanes between home / work.
        I have plenty of coworkers who frequently run into traffic problems unless they commute during off hours (like before 7am), which can also be frustrating.
      - PettyShabazz
        
        Walking is always an option
      - anon
        
        As is ubering. You only commute 2 miles and it’s more cost-effective to park a car at your destination than it is to uber? You must work somewhere with a free parking lot or something, which is fine, except that it’s an artificial allowance being made for you that probably won’t exist forever as parking lots disappear from the city.
      - DCDuchess
        
        I also commute in city (2.5 mi) and get free parking from my employer. If I had to pay for parking, I prob would take the metro. I love driving my car, and will not give up being able to visit family in VA or go to longer distances on a moments notice.
        
        And anon: where did you hear that the parking lots going to “disappear from the city”? That will not happen….
      - anon1
        
        The more cars on the city roads, the more they clog everything and ruin everyone’s commute. If your commute is only 2 miles, you could consider taking a bus instead and leave one more car off the road.
      - anon
        
        Re: DCDuchess
        .
        Surface parking lots are being redeveloped rapidly into buildings. Garages are being built, but they’re less likely to be free (and I personally find them much more difficult to get in and out of, diminishing the convenience of driving). I don’t know why this would even require a citation, but here you go: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/30611/dc-has-few-parking-craters-downtown-heres-why/
        .
        As far as visiting family and taking trips on short notice, we aren’t saying you can’t keep a car at home. But having a car out on the roads during rush hour is a massive societal cost you’re incurring for your own preference/convenience. Your anecdote is a great example of why employers shouldn’t provide free parking.
    - anon
      
      These are all exceedingly rare events so it’s hard to compare frequencies, but you could be carjacked and abducted by knifepoint in a car too.
      - anon
        
        and the chances of anyone being there to interrupt in that rare and tragic situation is far lower.
    - Abc
      
      This is plain silly, to the ” I’ll take my chances” PP. 30k+ people die a year in the US in car crashes and that doesn’t touch those maimed or otherwise severely injured. Metro has a problem, certainly, but the commenters’ grasp on statistics is shockingly lacking.
chimbo

Shit like this is why I can’t get behind the reduction of mass incarceration. Dudes like this need to be locked up for a very long time.

I’ve seen the very detailed data breakdowns of what types of offenders are in Federal prisons State prisons and local jails. State Prisons hold most of the prison population. And over half of State prison inmates are violent offenders. Just 3.5% are in for drug possession. Another 11% are in for more serious drug offenses – presumably dealing. And you have to understand that these drug offenders may have had more serious charges against them but plea’d down to drug offenses.

Long story short – the narrative that mass incarceration is driven by non-violent drug offenses is a false one. The people who advocate that narrative rarely trot out truthful data. They usually leave data our of the discussion entirely and speak in general terms. They hope if they just repeat their message enough and their anecdotes enough we will believe their assertions to be true. However to drastically reduce our incarceration we will have to reduce convictions and sentences for violent and property crime offenders. I have no interest in that.

I think the pragmatic approach would be to 1) better fund District Attorney’s offices to limit us convicting or steering suspects who may be innocent to plea deals. 2) create better systems to support those who have served their times so they don’t get in desperate circumstances and return to crime (i.e. halfway houses, job placement, etc). 3) I think raising the minimum wage above poverty level could help. These things to me are better than just being soft on crime across the board to reduce incarceration. There are terrible people amongst us like John Hicks and Bernie Madoff who are a threat to society and when they do bad they need to be locked away. Terrible actions need serious consequences not indifference.
- truth
  
  Looked this guy up on dccourts – appears he was charged with sexual assault of a child in 2013, but the government didn’t prosecute so it was dismissed. In 2007 he served 14 months for felony theft. And in 2005 he had a domestic violence felony charge that was no-papered and closed. There looked like more cases even earlier that I didn’t look at. The problem in DC is not MPD, its prosecution.

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