Bus Driver Charged With Sex Assault of Teen

A Metrobus driver was arrested yesterday and charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on a bus headed back to a Northeast Washington depot.

Theophilis A. Burroughs Jr., 27, who started work for Metro last month, is accused of having sex with the teenager Dec. 19, authorities said. The girl was on the No. 97 bus and stayed on after the East Capitol Street-Cardozo route was complete and the bus was returning to the Metrobus garage on 26th Street NE, they said.

Metro Transit Police learned of the alleged assault after the girl told someone that she had been attacked, according to the transit agency. The person helped the girl report the incident, officials said.

Initially, the girl told investigators that Burroughs had a knife and forced her to have sex, according to charging documents. But prosecutors amended the charging papers after the girl changed her story. She said that Burroughs did not have a knife and did not use physical force, the amended papers said.

The girl said she lied to police because she was afraid she would otherwise be in trouble with her parents, the documents said.

Standing in D.C. Superior Court late yesterday afternoon, still dressed in his Metro uniform, Burroughs was charged with first-degree child sexual abuse. His attorney, Heather Pinckney of the D.C. Public Defender Service, entered a plea of not guilty before Magistrate Judge Richard H. Ringell.

Under D.C. law, a person who has sex with someone younger than 16 can be charged with child sex abuse if he or she is more than four years older than the minor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle A. Zamarin recommended that Burroughs, who lives in Prince George's County, be placed in a special high-intensity supervision program while on release.

The judge agreed to place him in the program and, at the prosecutor's request, also ordered Burroughs to provide blood and hair samples. Zamarin said that a medical examination had been conducted on the girl within 24 hours of the alleged assault. She said that Burroughs had not used a condom.

Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for Metro, said Burroughs will be on leave while supervisors consider further action.

Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.