Sexual Assault

When a high court ruling came down this week limiting the use of DNA evidence, police in the state were investigating 20 cases based on DNA  collected after they arrested suspects charged with committing a violent crime or burglary. Now, it's unclear whether any of  those cases will lead to prosecutions. The Court of Appeals decision puts in question the constitutionality of collecting the samples before a conviction, and the state is considering whether to appeal the matter to theU.S.

The Baltimore County Police Department announced Friday that, in the wake of a Maryland Court of Appeals opinion, it will discontinue collection of DNA samples at the time of arrest from suspects charged with certain violent crimes. But in a press release, Police Chief James Johnson expressed his displeasure over the ruling, and said he hopes it will be reversed. "Our job is public safety, and DNA collection is an invaluable tool for helping us protect citizens from criminals," Johnson said in the statement.

Rape is a notoriously difficult crime to prosecute. Of every 100 rapes nationwide, 46 are reported, 12 lead to arrests and three result in prison sentences. To improve those odds, advocates are encouraging more nurses to receive the training to give a forensic examination that can be key to securing a conviction. Prosecutions are difficult when a victim fails to get a prompt examination. And with TV crime dramas such as "CSI" raising expectations among juries, prosecutors and victims' advocates view the forensic exam as more essential than ever.

A former midshipman who says she was raped twice while at the Naval Academy has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force officials to improve their response to sexual assaults at the service academies. In a complaint filed Friday, the woman, now 22, says she was raped on separate occasions by two different midshipmen. After she reported the assaults to an academy counselor, she says, the academy forced her to drop out. The woman and a co-plaintiff, a former U.S. Military Academy cadet who says she was raped by a fellow student there, say officials at the two academies tolerate sexual assault and discourage victims of attacks from reporting them.

There were football players in high heels, police officers in pumps, and students in spikes marching around campus on Wednesday, April 4, as Towson University hosted its third annual Walk a Mile In Her Shoes event. Walk A Mile is a national movement and marks April as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The event invites men to walk a mile on campus in a pair of women's shoes. Scores of students - men and women - took part in the walk, with many men choosing from a wide range of shoe choices at the sign-in table before stepping out. Towson University Student Government President Matt Sikorski, wearing a fashionable pair of heels, carried a sign stating, "My strength is not for hurting.

A woman walking through Riverside Park in South Baltimore early Sunday was attacked and sexually assaulted, and city police are asking for help in locating a suspect, authorities said on Tuesday. The incident occurred 10 days after a couple was robbed at gunpoint at East Clement and Covington streets, a few blocks south of the park which runs along East Randall Street, between Johnson and Covington streets. City police released scant details of the latest attack, and only after inquiries from The Baltimore Sun. The police then issued a news release to all the city's media.

Machele Fredericks had to face her attacker every day. She was in the Air Force. He was a fellow service member on the base. And he said that if she told anyone what he'd done, he'd kill her. "You didn't hear much of people getting raped in the military back then," Fredericks said. "At least I didn't. So, you know, it was like fear every day: 'I hope he's not at the gate today.' "I wouldn't dare tell no one. I didn't think anybody was going to believe me anyway. " She drank instead.

As a teenager growing up in the shadow of Memorial Stadium, working as a batboy in the clubhouses with the Baltimore Orioles and opposing teams was a dream job for Ronald Shelton. But Shelton said he quietly left the job before he had planned to do so after being twice sexually assaulted in an equipment room in 1990 by a Red Sox clubhouse manager, Donald Fitzpatrick, when the Boston team was in town. Now all these years later, Fitzpatrick has been linked to a growing number of claims of sexual assault.

The sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl reported Sunday to authorities in Anne Arundel County is unfounded, police said Friday. The reported sexual assault allegedly occurred on Feb. 14 after the girl left her Pasadena elementary school, according to a statement released Tuesday from Anne Arundel County Police. It had been reported that shortly after 3 p.m. the girl was heading home from Lake Shore Elementary by walking through the Riding Woods neighborhood when a man "grabbed her and pulled her into a wooded area," according to the statement.

A 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted last week while she was walking from her Pasadena elementary school, police said. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the victim was heading home from Lake Shore Elementary by walking through the Riding Woods neighborhood when a man "grabbed her and pulled her into a wooded area," according to a statement Tuesday from Anne Arundel County Police. The assault was reported to police on Sunday. Additional officers are patrolling the area.