An illegal migrant accused of raping a woman on a popular hiking path in a Washington, D.C.-area suburb previously had been arrested and released multiple times by local law enforcement.
A woman walking home on Nov. 18 along the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail in Herndon, Virginia was attacked behind nearby bushes and raped by a man, according to an announcement from the Herndon Police Department. Police have accused 31-year-old Denis Humberto Navarette Romero for the crime, charging him with abduction with intent to defile and rape.
“The suspect brazenly grabbed the suspect and forced her to the ground where he proceeded to rape her,” Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard stated during a press conference. “The victim was able to fight off the suspect and run away. It was then she encountered a passerby who called 911 on behalf of that victim.”
Navarette Romero, a Honduran national, was located by police just “minutes later” in a nearby parking lot after interviews of the victim and witnesses.
Police revealed at the time of the announcement that the Honduran national has a criminal history spanning several years, with Police Chief DeBoard saying it was “disturbing” how many times he had been arrested and released. An investigation by a local news outlet has since shed more light on the suspect’s criminal history.
Navarette Romero has been accused of sex crimes in Washington, D.C., resisting arrest in Virginia and in Washington,D.C., and he’s been charged with battery, assault, using a stolen vehicle, trespassing, drinking and smoking marijuana in public, weapon violations, loitering and indecent exposure, according to documents obtained by 7News. He is also allegedly tied to sexual batteries against several juveniles in 2017.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was not able to immediately provide comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation, a spokesperson for the Herndon Police Department confirmed to the DCNF that Navarette Romero is living in the U.S. unlawfully.
The incident marks the latest high-profile attack on a woman by an illegal migrant, and bears some similarities to other attacks on women who had been walking or hiking along a sparsely populated trail.
Venezuelan national Jose Ibarra was found guilty this month of killing nursing student Laken Riley in what prosecutors framed as a “crime of opportunity” as he tried to rape her while she was running on a trail near the University of Georgia campus. Salvadorian migrant Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in June for the alleged rape and murder of Rachel Morin along a popular hiking trail in Hartford County, Maryland.
These attacks, including the sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas by two Venezuelan illegal migrants, has kept the issue of illegal migrant crime in the national spotlight — particularly the debate surrounding sanctuary city policy.
Herndon is located in Fairfax County, Virginia, a locality that is labeled by watchdogs as a “sanctuary” for illegal migrants because of the local sheriff’s office policy that largely refuses to honor ICE detainer requests. Washington, D.C., where Navarette Romero was also reportedly arrested in the past, is also considered a sanctuary city for passing into law similar policy that restricts ICE cooperation.
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