SEATTLE – A woman’s tweet about being groped near a park last weekend has spurred other alleged victims to come forward with similar reports, Seattle police say.
Sexual-assault detectives say they have heard from several other women who say they recognized a photo of the sex offender tweeted by the alleged victim in the Westlake Park attack, 28-year-old Julia Marquand.
The 36-year-old man is the only suspect in the attack on Marquand on Sunday, said police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb. The man is being held at the King County Jail for violating the terms of his Department of Corrections supervision.
DOC officers arrested the man Wednesday after recognizing him.
The suspect, who is not being named because he has not been charged in the attack on Marquand, has a long history of groping strangers, according to past filings in King County Superior Court.
Marquand says she was walking near Westlake Park when the man groped her as she entered a store. She yelled at him and he “nervously” apologized before quickly walking off.
Marquand later confronted the man and took his picture.
Marquand posted the photo of the man on Twitter after she reported the incident to Seattle police but came away feeling the officer didn’t take her complaint seriously.
Although Whitcomb stressed that the officer took a report, he commended Marquand for also taking to Twitter when she believed police had been unresponsive.
“This is an effective use of social media. The victim was smart enough, and fortunately quick enough, to snap some pictures of this guy,” Whitcomb said.
Seeing the suspect’s photo encouraged another Seattle woman to contact police on Thursday.
In an email to The Seattle Times, the woman said she was boarding a King County Metro bus when the man ran up behind her and rubbed his groin against her backside.
“I quickly turned around and started screaming at him and made a scene – he quickly kept saying sorry, sorry sorry, with wide nervous eyes, and then said he was just trying to get on the bus, all while still saying sorry,” the woman wrote. “He then quickly ran off. It was clear he was not trying to get on the bus – he was trying to rub himself on a woman and act like it was a mistake when it clearly wasn’t.”
Carmela Fortin, who works downtown, said she called Seattle police after reading an article about Marquand in The Seattle Times on Wednesday and then accessing Marquand’s Twitter feed. She said she was stunned when she saw a photo of the man she is certain harassed her near Westlake Park on Sept. 20.
“I was waiting at a gyro cart and from about 15 feet away he made direct eye contact with me and he walked directly at me,” Fortin said in an interview on Thursday. “I took a step back before he got to me. He still grabbed my waist and chest area on my left side.”
Fortin said she yelled at the man to leave her alone.
“He skirted off,” she said. “It was a violation of my space and my person.”
Fortin said she reported the incident to police on Wednesday.
“Now that I know his record, now I’m disturbed,” Fortin said of the suspect. “It could have been worse for me and worse for other women.”
