Woman Pleads Guilty To Robbery, Extortion

The Defense Department analyst drove to Landover seeking a casual sexual encounter with a woman he'd met through a telephone-based dating service. But after they retreated to her bedroom, prosecutors said, a man stormed in pointing a gun.

The gunman announced that the woman was his sister, that she was just 15 and that their father was a judge, prosecutors said. He allegedly offered to forget about the whole incident -- for $20,000, which the analyst handed over.

It turned out, however, that she was not a teenager, but 28. She and the gunman weren't related, and neither has a father who is a judge, authorities said.

Yesterday, the woman, Denise C. Morgan of the 1000 block of Rutan Street in Silver Spring, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro to one count each of robbery and extortion. She faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Morgan agreed to testify against her alleged accomplice, Lae S. Taylor Jr., 24, of the 6800 block of West Forest Road in Hyattsville. Taylor is scheduled to go on trial on charges of robbery and extortion May 12.

"It was an Orwellian nightmare," the 49-year-old analyst said in an interview after the hearing.

He requested that his name not be published. He said that he works on national security issues and that revealing his name could compromise his ability to do his job.

The man said he encountered the woman in August, through a matchmaking service in which people seeking romantic meetings can talk to each other on the phone. He said he talked to Morgan three times on the phone before they agreed to meet at her apartment. Morgan told him that her name was "Desiree" and that she was 28, he said.

But the gunman who burst into the room said "Desiree" was supposed to be away at boarding school, the analyst said. After handcuffing the analyst, the gunman said he would forget about the incident if the man paid him $20,000 for the school tuition, the victim said.

Taylor uncuffed the analyst, prosecutors said in court, and the two went to a nearby bank while Morgan kept the analyst's wallet. The bank would not allow him to withdraw $20,000 with just a driver's license, so Taylor and the analyst went back to Morgan's apartment. There, the analyst retrieved another form of identification from his wallet, and he and Taylor returned to the bank, where the withdrawal was made.

The analyst gave the cash to Taylor. The cash has not been recovered, authorities said.

Days later, the gunman called the analyst, asking for more cash. It was then that the analyst contacted police, prosecutors said.

Morgan remains free on bond. After the hearing, despite having entered the guilty pleas, she told reporters that she did not rob the analyst and did not know Taylor.

Moments later, as she prepared to step into a late-model Dodge Caliber, Morgan shouted toward the analyst, prosecutors and reporters, "That twenty thousand dollars bought the car I'm about to get in."