THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, December 11, 2013 p
Page A-3
LOCAL
Germantown tutor, coach charged with sex abuse Alleged victim was a 16-year-old girl, police say n
BY
ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
A 30-year-old Germantown man who had been working as a private tutor and athletic coach has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing the teenage girl he was teaching. According to police, Daniel Mandel Sirotkin, of the 17300 block of Autumn Harvest Court, has been charged with two counts of sex abuse of a minor and three third-degree sex offenses. Police began investigating Sirotkin in November after Montgomery County Public School officials told police that Sirotkin was engaging in “inappropriate contact” with stu-
dents, according to a police press release detailing his arrest. The alleged acts did not take place on school property, according to county police spokeswoman Janelle Smith. Schools spokesman Dana Tofig said a friend of the victim alerted a school administrator of the alleged abuse. That school administrator then contacted police, Tofig said. According to police, he was in contact with students from public and private schools in Bethesda and Potomac. Tofig said Sirotkin previously worked as a substitute teacher within the school system but could not name specific schools where he had taught. Montgomery County Police Cpl. Rebecca Innocenti declined to say what sport Sirotkin coached, or name the schools where some of his stu-
dents attended, saying that police wanted to try to protect the privacy of the victim of the alleged abuse. Sirotkin has been charged with alleged crimes against one student. Police declined to explain whether he had would be charged with abusing other students or if he had engaged Sirotkin in inappropriate behavior with other minors. According to The Washington Post, Sirotkin was at one time in 2013 an assistant wresting coach at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney. His LinkedIn profile listed him as working at Aerotek, a staffing agency
in Rockville. A woman who answered the phone there said that Sirotkin “mostly kept to himself,” and worked at the agency only a short time before finding a new job. Robinson Rowe, an attorney who represented him on a public urination charge — which was eventually dismissed — in April in Montgomery County, confirmed that Sirotkin had attended Harvard University. He said he did not yet know if he would be defending Sirotkin against the more recent charges, adding that he had not yet been retained to do so. Sirotkin is being held on $100,000 bail, online court records show. A phone number listed to his residence was not active Tuesday afternoon. sjbsmith@gazette.net
Bongino heads to Potomac to raise money Republican tries to distance himself from tea party label
n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Congressional candidate Dan Bongino stood at the front of the crowded room, as listeners nodded in agreement with many points he made. Bongino, who’s seeking the Republican nomination for Maryland’s 6th District seat, stopped at the large, well-appointed home in Potomac on Dec. 3 to raise campaign money. Bongino shook hands and chatted with more than 90 donors who had come to meet him. As of Tuesday, the fundraiser had generated $19,550, with checks and financial commitments continuing to come in, spokeswoman Karla Graham said. Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who lives in Severna Park, said he and his wife are looking to move into the 6th District as soon as possible. He said he understands the argument that a candidate needs to run in the congressional district where he lives to be more ideologically aligned with the voters there. But he also argued that first-term Rep. John Delaney (D) of Potomac is “light years away” from the values of most voters in the district, which stretches from the Washington suburbs of southern Montgomery County to the mountains of Garrett County. When he was elected, Delaney said his top priority was increasing America’s competitiveness in the global market to help create jobs. His platform included creating an infrastructure bank to invest in communications, transportation and energy; instituting a federal carbon tax; implementing congressional term limits; and preserving the Affordable Care Act. Delaney doesn’t live in the 6th District, either; his house is less than a half-mile from the district line after it was redrawn in 2011. According to the U.S. Constitution, members of Congress must live in the state, but not the district, they represent. David E. Vogt III of Frederick County, a Marine veteran who served
Congressional candidate Dan Bongino addresses donors at a campaign fundraiser on Dec. 3 in Potomac. in Afghanistan, also is running in the GOP primary in June. In the front hallway of Arlene Hillerson’s Potomac home, a table was set up where people could buy copies of Bongino’s book “Life Inside the Bubble,” about his time in the Secret Service and his decision to leave the agency and run an unsuccessful challenge against Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) of Pikesville in 2012. The book was listed on Thursday No. 13 on The New York Times’ list of bestselling e-books, but has since fallen out of the top 25. Writing the book was a delicate matter for him, because he didn’t want to damage the agency’s relationship with the president, Bongino said. The main speaker on Dec. 3 was Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R), who addressed the crowd in front of a large stone fireplace with a yellow “Bongino for Congress” banner. He said Bongino would guest host Sean Hannity’s radio show on Dec. 23, drawing an approving chorus of applause. Gohmert, a regular guest himself on conservative radio and television shows, defended the Republicans’ decision to push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which led to a three-week
PHOTOS BY TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
“Could we possibly do better than someone who’s willing to take a bullet for his country?” asked Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) of Texas, supporting congressional hopeful Dan Bongino. government shutdown in October. Gohmert asked: If you know that’s what is best for the country, why wouldn’t you try to do it? Maryland needs Bongino in Congress, Gohmert said. “Could we possibly do better than someone who’s willing to take a bullet for his country?” he said. While he’s often associated with the tea party movement, Bongino said he doesn’t like to get into the semantics of who is in the tea party and who isn’t. He said he views the tea party
as normal Americans tired of paying more in taxes. He has nearly 42,000 “likes” on his Facebook page, and said a good portion of them identify themselves as Democrats. Bongino said people want candidates who can take the edge off rhetoric while staying true to their principles. “Don’t let anyone pigeonhole you as the angry Republican,” he said. rmarshall@gazette.net
Rice’s road record is drawing greater scrutiny n
Report errs that councilman’s license was suspended BY
ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
County Council President Craig Rice is facing scrutiny for his driving and parking habits. On Friday, a local watchdog blog posted a notice saying that the Montgomery County District Court advised the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to suspend Rice’s license after he failed to appear for a speeding ticket court date. When contacted by The Gazette, Rice said that he missed his Nov. 7 court date because of an event in Gaithersburg he was participating in called 100,000 Homes for the Homeless. By missing the court date, Rice said he was unable to argue against the $90 ticket, which he ended up paying online last month. “It’s already been paid,” he said of the ticket, which he incurred Sept. 9 on I-270 near the Falls Road exit for driving in the HOV lane. Rice said he had been using the lane to pass another motorist. MVA spokesman Buel Young said Rice has a valid driver’s license, and that earlier reports that the Montgomery County District Court had advised that Rice’s driving license be suspended were incorrect. Instead, Rice would have received a letter notifying him of his failure to appear and advising him to pay the ticket fee, or face having his license suspended, Young said. Court records show that Rice has had three other speeding tickets in Montgomery County since 2011. Those have all been adjudicated. On the heels of that story, WJLA reported Monday that Rice had more than $1,000 in unpaid tickets and citations, citing the traffic ticket in Montgomery County as well as parking tickets and other violations in Washington, D.C., and Annapolis. Neil Greenberger, a County Council spokesman, said Tuesday that the councilman had received several of the tickets on a car he had been leasing. Notices of the tickets were mailed to Rice’s leasing company, Greenberger said. “He does not recall getting the notices,” Greenberger said. Rice called his leasing company Monday to verify the different tickets, Greenberger said. “When he found out they did exist, he then paid them immediately,” he said. Online records for D.C. and both Maryland counties showed that Rice did not have any outstanding balances for parking tickets on two cars he has leased in the past. On Tuesday, Rice said questions about the parking tickets date back several years and that previous publications and news outlets had erred in their reporting and mixed up facts. sjbsmith@gazette.net
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