arrest

Crime Report: Overexposure Edition

By ARLnow.com

Men in various states of nudity caused quite a bit of trouble over the past week. This week’s Arlington County crime report lists five separate indecent exposure cases, including two arrests.

EXPOSURE-ARREST, 09/23/11, 2400 block of Arlington Boulevard. On September 23 at 4:45 am, an officer witnessed a man running nude on the highway. Mark Dewitt, 48, of Arlington, was charged with Indecent Exposure. He was held on a $3,000 bond.

EXPOSURE-ARREST, 09/23/1, 2300 block of Walter Reed Drive. On September 23 at 1:50 pm, a man was seen exposing himself on a bike trail. Russell Bixby, 48, of no fixed address, was charged with Indecent Exposure and released on a summons.

EXPOSURE, 09/23/11, 3200 block of Arlington Boulevard. On September 23 at 7:40 am, a man was jogging and suddenly stopped in front of three teenage girls. He acted as if he was going to tie his shoe, but exposed himself instead. The girls went to school and reported the incident. The suspect is described as a white male, 5’8″, and 165 lbs. wearing black running shorts and a baseball cap.

EXPOSURE, 09/25/11, 1300 block of N. Meade Street. On September 25 at 8:20 pm, a woman was walking and noticed a man walking behind her who was exposing himself. The suspect was 25 year-old a white male, 5’10” wearing a light colored shirt, dark pants, and large glasses.

EXPOSURE, 09/25/11, 1500 block of N. Rhodes Street. On September 25 at 9 pm, a man approached a woman sitting on a step smoking a cigarette. He touched her leg and when she pulled away, he exposed himself. The suspect was a white Hispanic male in his mid-20’s, 5’5″ and 150 lbs. He was wearing an orange baseball cap, blue t-shirt and dark shorts.

Also this week, a woman who got into a vehicle she initially thought was a taxicab was touched inappropriately by the driver. Later, she realized the car was, in fact, probably not a taxi.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY, 09/25/11, 4600 block of Washington Boulevard. On September 25 at 2:30 am, a woman reported that she got into a car in Washington D.C., assuming it was a taxi. She sat in the front seat and the driver touched her breasts. She fled the car at her designation, and now believes the vehicle was not a taxi. The suspect is a white Hispanic male in his mid-40’s, 5’7″ and 180 lbs.

The rest of this week’s crime report, after the jump.

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Crime Report: Neighborhood Watch Edition

By ARLnow.com

In this week’s Arlington County crime report, a suspected burglar was caught after a handyman working on a neighbor’s house saw the crime in progress and called police.

BURGLARY-ARREST, 09/15/11, 3500 block of N. 13th Street. On September 15 at 12:44 pm, a man was seen breaking into a residence. He was located by police and in possession of items from the house. Michael Porter, 53, of no fixed address, was charged with Burglary and Grand Larceny. He was held on a $1,500 bond.

The rest of this week’s crime report, including a man charged with assaulting a police officer during a DWI arrest, after the jump.

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Woman Charged With DUI in Police Car Crash

By ARLnow.com

A 21-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated in a July crash that seriously injured an Arlington County police officer.

At 2:20 a.m. on July 20, the officer was responding to a call in Ballston when his police cruiser collided with another vehicle at N. Glebe Road and Washington Boulevard. The officer was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Even now, he’s “still in and out of the hospital,” according to police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal.

Today police announced that Arlington resident Kathryn Grace Kron, 21, has been arrested in connection with the accident. Kron is charged with Driving While Intoxicated, DWI Maiming and Possession of a Schedule II Drug, according to police. She is currently out on bond.

“Anyone who has additional information about this accident is asked to contact Detective P. Mulvaney at (703) 228-4239,” police said in a statement. “Witnesses can also call the Arlington Police Tip-Line at (703) 228-4242.”

On Facebook, an Arlington resident named Kathryn Kron is listed as a Yorktown High School graduate.

Photo courtesy Arlington County Police Department

Crime Report: Bribery Edition

By ARLnow.com

A property owner was arrested last week and charged with bribery, after allegedly trying to pay off a county inspector who had discovered code violations. Ibrahim Abdullah, a Cherrydale resident, was booked and held on a $5,000 bond.

BRIBERY-ARREST, 08/31/11, 3600 block of Fairfax Drive. On August 31 at 10 am, a person who owns several properties in Arlington County with code violations attempted to bribe a county inspector. The inspector reported the incident to the police. Ibrahim Abdullah, 56, of Arlington, was charged with Bribery. He was held on a $5,000 bond.

The rest of this week’s Arlington County crime report, after the jump.

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Crime Report: Assault and Coffee Edition

By ARLnow.com

A woman was arrested at the Pentagon City mall on Saturday for allegedly throwing a drink at a coffee kiosk employee, according to this week’s Arlington County crime report.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY, 08/20/11, 1100 S. Hayes Street. On August 20 at 6 pm, a woman threw a drink at an employee of a coffee kiosk. Jennel Solomon, 27, of Washington D.C., was charged with Assault and Battery. She was released on a summons.

The accused drink thrower was charged with assault and battery. On Friday, a woman was arrested and charged with assault and battery, police say, for forcefully grabbing a co-worker by the arm in Rosslyn.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY-ARREST, 08/19/11, 1600 block of Wilson Boulevard. On August 18 at 6 pm, two women argued at their place of work, and one grabbed the other by the arm forcefully. Ashley Cauthen, 25, of Washington D.C., was charged with Assault and Battery. She was held on a $1,500 bond.

The rest of this week’s crime report, after the jump.

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BREAKING NEWS — Arlington PD Arrests Suspected Bank Robber

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 10:20 a.m.) Arlington County Police have arrested a man suspected of robbing up to six banks in Arlington this summer.

D.C. resident Peter Cifala, 57, was arrested on Friday and charged with one count of bank robbery.

“Though the suspect is charged with one robbery at this time, the robbery is believed to be related to a series of five other bank robberies that occurred over the past three months in Arlington County,” police said in a statement.

Authorities say Cifala was nabbed thanks to tips and increasingly detailed surveillance images.

“The pictures got progressively better,” police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal said. “The investigation was greatly assisted by citizens who called the police department with tips, and a tip from the Arlington County Sheriff’s Department”

“We’re happy,” Nosal added. “[The arrest] is going to be reassuring for bank employees and people who go into banks.”

Cifala was apprehended with the help of the Northern Virginia Violent Crimes Task Force, police said. He’s currently being held in the Arlington County Detention Center.

Cifala has a long rap sheet that includes more than 20 criminal convictions in Virginia, including nine separate grand larceny, attempted larceny and petit larceny charges in Arlington between 1991 and 2002.

Update at 1:45 p.m. — We’re told that a sheriff’s deputy in the Arlington County Detention Center’s booking room recognized the most recent surveillance photo of Cifala.

County Employee Recounts Chasing Down Robbery Suspect

By ARLnow.com

By night, Juan Rivera is a mild-mannered conga player and salsa dancer. By day, he’s an undercover crime fighter.

At least, that’s the role Rivera played Tuesday, when he helped to chase down a man who tried to rob a woman at an ATM machine in Courthouse Plaza.

Rivera, an employee in the county’s Commissioner of Revenue office, had just picked up sushi across the street from his office when he saw a man running and someone yelling “thief!” Dressed in a shirt and tie and still holding his to-go box of sushi, Rivera gave chase. Soon, he was joined by two other men, one of whom was calling police on his cell phone. The suspect, a tall, physically imposing man in his mid-20s, tried to flee into a nearby residential neighborhood.

“We went after him, he hid [behind] some houses, and I was like, hey he must be in one of these houses, because he just turned around the corner and disappeared,” Rivera recounted. “So we went looking and he was there. There was some verbal confrontation between him and the other person who was chasing him. Then he ran back into the houses, jumped a couple of fences to keep going, and we were right behind him and jumped a couple of fences, too. When he got to the last fence, which was really high, the police came from the left-hand side and caught him.”

So why did Rivera decide to chase after the man, ignoring the potential danger involved?

“To me, that’s just common sense. That’s just how i do things,” he said. “If someone gets robbed, to me, the people should react in a helpful manner. But there were only three of us that reacted. I didn’t go to tackle the guy… but at least participate in assisting this person who was just robbed.”

“It’s kind of sad to see how little participation there was,” Rivera continued. “I live in Columbia Heights in D.C., and if that would have happened there that guy would have not gotten farther than a block. People over there, they’re going to participate. The men there, if something happens to a woman, they just go.”

“Some kids might just do it for the fun of beating someone up,” he added with a laugh.

Once the suspect was in police custody, Rivera headed back to the office, slightly sweaty but with his sushi still in hand. He told his supervisor what happened, and was granted an extra 15 minutes to finish his lunch. Then, he got back to work. Yesterday afternoon, the victim — also a county employee — came and thanked him.

As it turns out, the suspect never got any of the victim’s cash. She was able to break free from the suspect’s choke hold, cancel the ATM transaction and yell for help, according to police. The suspect, identified as 26-year-old James Williams of no fixed address, has been charged with attempted robbery as well as grand larceny, from a previous warrant.

As for Rivera, he’s taking his five minutes of fame — which included an interview with NBC4 — in stride. After all, he’s already used to the spotlight, given that he plays the conga in two bands.

“It’s not a big deal to me,” he said of the new-found attention.

Boot Bandit Busted in Courthouse

By ARLnow.com

It was a bold move — trying to defeat a county parking boot just steps away from Arlington police headquarters in Courthouse. Unfortunately for the driver accused of attempting it, cops caught up with him before he could get away.

Police received a call around 5:00 last night for a man who had his booted car jacked up in the county surface parking lot across from police headquarters. The man allegedly removed the wheel with the boot on it, placed it in the trunk and replaced it with a “donut” spare tire.

He was getting ready to drive away when police showed up and put the kibosh on the whole operation.

Officers recovered the boot from the man’s trunk and, after talking to him for a while, placed him handcuffed in the back of a squad car.

Man Arrested After Brazen ATM Robbery in Courthouse

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) A man has been arrested after a brazen daytime robbery attempt just outside the county government building in Courthouse.

The crime was called into police around 1:10 p.m. Initial reports suggest the man put a female victim in a choke hold after she entered her PIN number into the Arlington County Federal Credit Union ATM in Courthouse Plaza, just steps from the main entrance of the county government building and across the street from the Arlington County Police headquarters.

The woman reportedly ran away while the man attempted to use her ATM account. It’s unclear whether he withdrew money from the machine.

Several people then started chasing the suspect into the residential Lyon Village area, just north of Courthouse, according to police radio traffic and a witness. Police eventually took over the chase and arrested the man in a yard just near Key Elementary school.

One of the people who initially helped to chase the suspect was an employee in the county’s Commissioner of Revenue office, according to county spokeswoman Mary Curtius. The employee heard the victim scream and then gave chase, Curtius said.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Sun Sets on Arlington County Fair — The rides, food stands, and carnival games that made up the Arlington County Fair are all packing up and heading out. Last night was the fair’s last night. In case you missed it, Patch has published 21 separate articles on the fair since Thursday.

Arlington’s ‘Karaoke Cab’ Featured on NPR — Arlington’s ‘Karaoke Cab‘ was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered over the weekend. [NPR]

Pakistan Kidnapping’s Arlington Connection — An American development expert kidnapped in Pakistan on Saturday was the Pakistan director of J.E. Austin Associates, a consultancy based in Courthouse. [New York Times]

Arlington Stingy on Diplomatic Gifts — Arlington only gives gifts to visiting diplomatic delegations “on rare occasion,” and when it does, the value of those gifts is in the “tens of dollars, not hundreds of dollars.” Arlington’s policy on diplomatic gifts contrasts with that of the District; D.C. officials are “re-gifting” a set of donated plates to foreign dignitaries. [Washington Post]

Arlington Art Attacker Arrested Again — Susan Burns, the 53-year-old Arlington woman accused of attacking a Gauguin painting at the National Gallery of Art back in April, has been arrested again. This time, Burns is charged with slamming a Matisse against a wall at the same museum. [MyFoxDC]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Illegal Gambling Bust — This morning the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force will announce that it has made multiple arrests and taken down a gang-related illegal gambling operation after a months-long investigation. Arlington County was one of the police agencies that aided the task force by assisting with the investigation and executing warrants, according to a spokesperson.

Overview of Arlington Prosecutor’s Race — In race for Commonwealth’s Attorney in Arlington, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos has far out-raised defense attorney David Deane. But Deane is hoping his stance against the death penalty will give him an edge against Stamos in the upcoming Democratic primary. [Washington Post]

An Outsider’s View of Seven Corners — To anyone who has driven far enough west on Wilson Boulevard, Arlington Boulevard or Route 7, an anecdote in this article, written by a recent Arlington transplant, will ring true. [The New Atlantis]

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