THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 z
Page A-3
LOCAL Man accused of sex assault tied to drinking game Authorities say there could be more victims
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BY
ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
A 38-year-old real estate appraiser used public beer-drinking games to befriend and intoxicate young, heterosexual men, then sexually assaulted them in his house, police said. Police said they aren’t sure how many men Joey G. Poindexter assaulted, but since his arrest have learned there might be multiple victims. Police said Poindexter is a Gaithersburg resident, but online court records list a Washington, D.C., address for him. A call to the D.C. address listed for Poindexter was not answered Tuesday afternoon. According to charging documents, a young man told police on Oct. 3 that he met Poindexter Poindexter at Looney’s Pub, a College Park bar, the night before. They were playing beer pong — a drinking game in which opposing players try to toss a ping-pong ball into a cup filled with beer, which their opponent must drink if they succeed. The two exchanged numbers and drank beer and liquor. At one point, Poindexter bought a round of Long Island iced teas. According to the charging documents, the victim told police he didn’t have any memory of the rest of the evening after drinking the cocktail. However, the charging documents later state that the victim told police he woke up the next morning on Poindexter’s couch wearing a pair of Poindexter’s basketball shorts, and remembered being sexually assaulted in the man’s shower. He told police he had not consented to any sexual activity with Poindexter. “It’s a horrific sexual assault case,”
said Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Russ Hamill. “The fact that it’s a male doesn’t make it any less horrific.” He said the man who came forward had “tremendous courage” for telling police what happened to him. Police believe Poindexter has been targeting young men for about 10 years. “We have a case reported to us approximately 10 years ago. The investigation was halted at the request of the victim. We have not had any further contact or reports from our suspect since that time,” Hamill said. Hamill continued: “I think this young man and all the other victims are owed a completely thorough police investigation that gets to the bottom of everything that occurred here and that we can hold Mr. Poindexter accountable. And in my opinion, he should be held accountable for an extended period of time.” During a phone interview, Lisae Jordan, executive director for the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said experts believe that male victims are less likely to report rape than female victims. “Rape in men is more common than people think,” she said, adding that about one in 10 rape victims is male. However, rape by a stranger is much more common among men, she said. Forty eight percent of male rape victims are raped by a stranger, she said, compared to 28 percent of women. “The rapists are often heterosexual,” she said, describing rape as an expression of power and humiliation. According to Hamill, the victim was driven to his College Park home by Poindexter. Charging documents say the victim contacted police several hours later. Medical personnel examined him at a local hospital. In a phone call investigators recorded between the men two days later, Poindexter told the man he knew he had been drunk. Poindexter also told the man he had been in his own bathroom with the victim after the man vomited on himself. In that call, Poindexter told the man, “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t have any [expletive] AIDS if anything did happen.”
On Oct. 9, with the help of the victim, police recorded a conversation between him and Poindexter at a Starbucks in College Park, in which Poindexter admitted to the victim that he had sex with him, according to his charging documents. On Tuesday, police divulged more details about their investigation into Poindexter because they said they believe he may have assaulted many more men. Hamill said investigators spoke to two other possible victims and expect to speak to another. “We’re trying to identify further victims. There are other victims out there,” he said. Police were poring through Poindexter’s computer and phone as part of their investigation. Two additional people contacted police and one more is expected to contact police soon. All of the victims of the alleged abuse who have contacted police told investigators they were heterosexual and never agreed to any sexual contact with Poindexter, Hamill said. Police believe the alleged assaults occurred when Poindexter’s alleged victims were unconscious or significantly impaired by alcohol. All of the victims they have identified are heterosexual and did not have any indication of what was going to occur prior to the assaults. Investigators also learned that before his arrest, Poindexter frequently attended organized beer pong events around Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and had traveled to other events around the country in places like Atlantic City, N.J.; Las Vegas; Dallas; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Salt Lake City. According to police, investigators believe Poindexter may have targeted men at those events, and have contacted law enforcement agencies in those places as well. Poindexter has been charged with committing a second-degree sex offense. He originally was held on $50,000 bail; that later was raised to $500,000. Poindexter remained in jail on Tuesday. sjbsmith@gazette.net
Councilman Berliner will table bill to limit bag tax Agrees to Leggett’s request for more time to gather data
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BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
County Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) will put off any action on a bill that would make changes to Montgomery County’s bag tax law, agreeing to requests by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) that the law be given more time so staff can gather information on its effects. Berliner, of Bethesda, sent a letter to
Leggett Wednesday agreeing to delay any action on the bill so more data can be gathered. “[T]here is no question that more data is better than less if we are to make educated decisions with regard to this matter,” Berliner wrote in the letter. Berliner’s bill would only apply the bag tax to stores that make at least 2 percent of their gross sales from food. The current bag tax, which went into effect in January 2012, applies the 5-cent per bag fee to virtually all businesses. At a meeting Monday of the council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and
Environment Committee, Berliner suggested he wasn’t willing to wait. “We are going to move forward with this,” he told a Leggett staffer who had expressed the executive’s desire to give the tax at least two years to judge its effectiveness in limiting the number of bags that are found in the county’s rivers and streams. The committee, which Berliner chairs, voted 2-1 to send the bill to the full council. Berliner said Wednesday that Leggett told him in a conversation Tuesday that he was keeping an open mind on the issue and was prepared to reassess the scope of the bag tax if the data support it.
Simmons plans to seek Senate seat in District 17 Delegate to run for seat held by Forehand n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
After serving four terms in the House of Delegates, Rockville Democrat Luiz R.S. Simmons plans to seek the District 17 Senate seat now held by Sen. Jennie M. Forehand. Simmons said he plans to file for the Senate race Thursday. The Democratic primary is June 24. Forehand, 77, has served in the Senate since 1995 and served in the House of Delegates from 1978-95. Forehand said Tuesday that she was on the verge of deciding whether to run again, but won’t make an official announcement until sometime after the General Assembly session begins in January. She said she’s had people encourage her to run and others tell her she should call it a career, but said she’s afraid making an announcement now might damage the prospects for some of the legislation she plans to file this session if she decides not to run. Former delegate Cheryl Kagan has also been mentioned as a potential candidate for the race but hasn’t publicly revealed her intentions. Kagan, 52, said Tuesday that Rockville and Gaithersburg need an advocate for their interests on issues in Annapolis including the budget, health care, transportation and education. Simmons, 64, said he was going to run for the Senate four years ago, but backed off after Forehand said she wanted to run for one more term. He said he was surprised this year when Forehand began talking about possibly running again. But he said there’s no animosity between
the two legislators. “I have affection for Jennie. I’ve known her since 1979,” he said in an interview with The Gazette on Nov. 6. On Monday, Simmons announced an endorsement from Rep. John Delaney (DDist 6) of Potomac. Simmons has shown in his time as a delegate and as an attorney that he’ll put the needs of Simmons his constituents first, according to a statement from Delaney released by Simmons’ campaign. Simmons was an early supporter of Delaney’s in his 2012 primary campaign and has backed Delaney’s support for raising Maryland’s minimum wage, Delaney spokesman Will McDonald wrote in an email Tuesday. Simmons served one term in the House from 1978-1982 as a liberal Republican, and has served in the chamber as a Democrat since 2002. “I consider myself generally a moderate,” he said Nov. 6. Simmons said Annapolis is more regimented today than it was in the ’70s, with fewer legislators asking critical questions, although he said he sees more opportunities for independent thinking in the Senate than the House. Simmons said he wants to use his campaign to talk about serious questions about the state’s future. For instance, he said, Maryland is poised to spend $100 million a year to subsidize the horse-racing industry, which Simmons said provides a negligible contribution to the state’s economy. rmarshall@gazette.net
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