A 37-year-old man was charged with the rape of a Montgomery County teenager and is a suspect in a rash of other attacks on women over the past two years, authorities said yesterday.
Jorge A. Rivera-Aleman, who prosecutors said lived in a room on Kodiak Drive in Silver Spring for the past two months, was charged Monday with first-degree rape and burglary for allegedly attacking a 13-year-old girl from Colesville after she came home from school in November. In two separate cases, Rivera-Aleman was charged with first-degree burglary and attempted burglary of two homes in the White Oak area of Silver Spring in the past week.
At a hearing in District Court in Rockville yesterday afternoon, Assistant State's Attorney Donna Fenton said that Rivera-Aleman confessed to rape in interviews with authorities and that he was "a danger to the community." Judge Thomas L. Craven denied bond in each of the cases. If convicted, Rivera-Aleman faces a life sentence for rape and a 20-year sentence for burglary.
Authorities said DNA samples from Rivera-Aleman will be tested for a link to at least four other attacks against women and teenage girls since March 2003. The wave of attacks prompted police to form a task force and school officials to warn parents to be vigilant.
"There was fear in that part of our community that no longer exists. It's a great relief," said Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler. "Parents need to be able to feel safe and secure in having their teenage daughters be able to come home to the sanctity of their own homes without being sexually assaulted or raped."
Rivera-Aleman was arrested Monday morning after he tried to break into the home of Katherine Carlson in the 1100 block of Cresthaven Drive in White Oak, authorities said. Carlson, an Episcopal priest, was getting a cup of coffee in the kitchen when she saw a gloved hand open her living room window, she said in a telephone interview yesterday. Her 15-year-old daughter slept upstairs. She screamed "Hey!" and "Somebody call the police!" hoping to convince the intruder that others were home, she said. She called 911 as the suspect walked around her house and described his jeans, jacket and shoes. He got into a dark red Toyota sedan, which she described to police.
After identifying the vehicle, officers blocked him at New Hampshire Avenue and Chalmers Road. "It was 9 a.m. in broad daylight on a federal holiday. What was he thinking?" Carlson said.
Authorities said Rivera-Aleman, a native of El Salvador, was living in the United States illegally but did not say how long he had been in Maryland or whether he had a job.
Police said that Rivera-Aleman is a suspect in a string of attacks that began in March 2003 when a man hiding in the van of a 17-year-old girl threatened her with a kitchen knife after she left a gym in White Oak. He touched and kissed her and fled after she struggled, police said.
In the other attacks described by police: A 30-year-old woman was leaving a store on Cherry Hill Road in March 2003 when a man hiding in her minivan put her in a chokehold. He tried to pull her into the back of the van but failed and then ran away. In April 2003, a 24-year-old woman getting out of her car along November Circle in White Oak was pushed down by a man she said was holding a gun; she struggled and the man fled. Eleven months later, a man forced his way into the car of a 17-year-old girl who was sitting in a parking lot on New Hampshire Avenue. She struggled until he left the car.
Police said they are looking at several other cases that may be connected. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
