By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 25, 2006; B08
A 14-year-old Oxon Hill boy whom police suspect of sexually assaulting four teenage girls was being held without bond yesterday after a brief hearing in Prince George's County District Court.
Dominick L. Edelen, an eighth-grader charged as an adult, looked confused as he answered charges via closed-circuit television from the Prince George's County jail. He has been in jail since his arrest Friday afternoon while in class at G. Gardner Shugart Middle School in Temple Hills, said his parents, John and Janet Edelen.
Edelen, of the 4900 block of Glassmanor Drive in Oxon Hill, is charged with one count of first-degree assault and one count of first-degree sex offense, court records show. Authorities say he is a suspect in three other sexual assaults. Judge Beverly J. Woodard set a preliminary hearing for May 9.
According to a charging document, Edelen is accused of accosting a 13-year-old girl about 8 p.m. March 29 as she walked in the 700 block of Irvington Street in Oxon Hill. The girl told police that someone approached her from behind, showed a handgun, took her to a wooded area and sexually assaulted her. DNA found on the girl's clothing matches Edelen's, according to the charging document.
Yesterday, Edelen's parents, an aunt and grandmother appeared in court on Edelen's behalf. His parents said an attorney retained Sunday could not attend the hearing. Janet Edelen spoke for her son.
"I just wanted to ask for the mercy of the court in this case," Janet Edelen said. She said her son is a B student whose teachers "speak highly of him." She denied that he had a gun and said she hoped Woodard would reconsider the no-bond order.
"It's the nature of the offense," Woodard said, citing the fact that accuser was 13 and reiterating the seriousness of the charges.
After the hearing, Edelen's relatives said Dominick Edelen was first interviewed by police about two weeks ago when a detective stopped him as he returned from a friend's house.
The officer told the teenager that he was investigating a robbery at a fast-food restaurant and asked him to identify himself, John Edelen said. The detective then called the father on the boy's cellphone and asked him to identify his son.
"I told him my son was not involved in any robbery, and we finished talking," John Edelen said. "Apparently, after we finished talking, the detective took out a swab and told my son that he needed to swab his cheek. My son, because [the officer] had just finished talking to me, let him do it even though the policeman never asked me the whole time he talked to me, and he had my number and could have called me back. I think the DNA was illegally taken."
State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said the collection of the DNA sample will be reviewed as his office prepares the case. "This is something that we will probably end up litigating in court, and a judge will make the final determination," he said.
A source familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, said it is not illegal for police to take DNA samples from a child without parental consent if the child is charged as an adult. It could not be determined whether Edelen had been charged by April 4, when the DNA sample was taken. He was arrested Friday, court documents show.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.