Grace Palo
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A 39-year-old woman was raped at knife point on a moving Metro train just before 10 a.m. last month in the Wheaton-Glenmont area of Montgomery County, prosecutors said in court Monday.
The suspect, John Prentice Hicks, 39, of Northeast Washington, was making his first court experience in Montgomery County District Court in the case.
Judge Zuberi Bakari Williams ordered Hicks held in jail on no-bond status.
Hicks is due back in court June 10.
He allegedly pulled out a knife, forced her to a different part of the car, raped her, then ordered her to another area of the car, and forced her to perform a sex act, court statements and records alleged.
Detectives arrested Hicks in the District last month — on the same day as the assault, according to D.C. Superior Court records.
He was transferred to Montgomery County late last week.
According to an arrest document signed by Metro Transit Detective C.H. Dorrity, investigators used high-definition surveillance video inside the Glenmont station, records from the suspect’s Metro SmarTrip card, and the woman’s recollection to identify Hicks.
Metro police officers also recognized him as the suspect in an earlier indecent-exposure case on Metro.
Detectives also reviewed a database of passenger card use, which “showed that a SmarTrip card registered to John Prentice Hicks was processed exiting at Glenmont Station at 1000 hours” on April 12.
Detectives showed a mug shot of Hicks from a previous arrest to the woman in the current case as part of an array of photographs that included five other men.
She identified Hicks as her assailant, police said.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved.
(Photo: Metro Police Department)
