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“In my more than 12 years as chief of police, this is the only stranger rape that has occurred in the town.”
Just days after being released early from prison for indecent exposure, a serial illegal immigrant offender was caught for rape in northern Virginia last week, according to WTTG-TV.
In relation to an incident that happened on the evening of November 18 on the W&OD Trail between Ferndale Avenue and Grace Street,
Herndon Police said that they had arrested 31-year-old Denis Humberto Navarette Romero, who does not have a permanent home, for abduction with intent to defile and rape.
Romero has been labeled as a serial offender with a “troubling history,” and police suspect he has additional victims, according to WTTG.
According to the station, which cited Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard, Romero, a Honduran citizen who is in the United States illegally, has a history of sexual assaults and indecent exposes in the area that dates back to 2022.
Romero choked a Herndon police officer in June 2022 while responding to a groping complaint, according to WTTG, which also said that Romero has been jailed and released many times.
Romero was charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer in relation to the incident, according to DeBoard.
However, the station stated that the Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney reduced the charge to simple assault, which is a misdemeanor.
“I mean he literally tried to get his hands around our officer’s neck trying to choke him, so we don’t understand that one,” DeBoard said to WTTG.
The commonwealth’s lawyer informed WTTG that Romero was prosecuted for the event and therefore spent prison time, but he did not elaborate on the reasoning behind the decision to lower the charges.
Romero was arrested on October 19 for indecent exposure and given a 50-day prison term; however, the station said that he was freed 25 days early, on November 14, according to Virginia’s “good behavior law.”
Romero was taken into custody four days later for raping a lady in Herndon on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, according to WTTG.
Jennifer Pugh, the lady who reported the indecent exposure in October, told the station what she saw.
“He continued approaching and attempting to take my dog. Then he was yelling things and attempting to follow me. Pugh said to WTTG,
“He didn’t speak English, and then suddenly he started pulling his stuff out.” “I said, ‘There’s Ring cameras all around, you know,’ and he didn’t care.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not yet verified whether it was informed of Romero’s unlawful presence in the United States in the wake of these instances,
According to the station. He was arrested by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office after both occurrences, according to WTTG.
According to the sheriff’s office website, “ICE is notified every time an undocumented immigrant is taken into our custody.” “When you have situations like this,
I look at this and see if some part of the system … if it was all working together, if there was a way to make it work, this would never have happened,” DeBoard told the station.
“I tell the community that they should feel safe here, and I do believe they are safe here, I truly do,” he said. It’s a collection of issues, so I don’t believe you can blame one location in particular.”
Inmates at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center are fingerprinted, according to the sheriff, and the commonwealth then sends the prints to federal law enforcement, WTTG reported.
According to the New York Post, DeBoard said at a news conference on Romero on Tuesday, “This is the only stranger rape that we have had in the town in my more than 12 years as chief of police.”
According to the article, Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin criticized local authorities for permitting Romero’s release rather than handing him over to ICE and deporting him.
Romero is being detained at the adult jail facility without bail, according to police, who spoke to WTTG. A video report regarding the incident is available here.
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