Woman Testifies of Attack

Police, Who Were Following Suspect, Intervened Immediately

A 46-year-old Falls Church woman testified yesterday that she had just left her job at a Syms department store and was walking home one night last February when a man grabbed her from behind and forced her under a tree.

He pinned her down and tried to unbutton her pants, but she bit his hand and "started screaming, screaming until the police came," she told an Arlington County jury. Police arrived in a matter of seconds.

Police got there so quickly because they suspected her assailant in a string of similar attacks on women and had placed a Global Positioning System device on his vehicle, authorities have said. They arrested the attacker and charged him with abduction with intent to defile.

The man they charged in the Feb. 6 attack, David Lee Foltz Jr., went on trial yesterday in Arlington Circuit Court, where Falls Church cases are tried. He has not been charged in any of the 11 similar attacks, which began in August 2007 in Fairfax County and Alexandria and frightened women across the area.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Chris Leibig urged the jury to weigh only the facts of this case and not to consider his client's previous rape conviction, a task he said "really tests the integrity of the system."

He conceded that Foltz attacked the woman, but "he didn't rob her," he said. "He didn't rape her. He didn't sexually assault her."

After Foltz, who lived in the area, emerged as a potential suspect in the string of attacks, investigators decided to attach the GPS device to his vehicle, police said. The day before they arrested Foltz, they spotted his vehicle in the area of one of the earlier assaults, authorities said.

Police started following Foltz about 4 p.m. Feb. 6, Fairfax Police Lt. William Desmond testified yesterday. He said Foltz drove around the Seven Corners area of Fairfax, occasionally stopping in residential areas. About 7:20 p.m., he got out of his vehicle and started walking behind a woman. Police got out of their cars and "followed him following her," Desmond said.

Foltz continued pursuing the woman, getting closer, and "as he closed the gap, we closed the gap," Desmond said. Police saw Foltz grab the woman and pull her under a tree, he said.

By the time Foltz was apprehended, 18 police officers had descended on the scene, he said.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Frances O'Brien said in her opening statement that Folz had tried to conceal himself before the attack by pulling his T-shirt over his face. "He saw his chance," she said.

When asked whether her assailant tried to grab her purse, the woman said: "No, he didn't. He just grabbed me." The Washington Post generally does not name victims of sexual offenses.