Journalist Says DC Police ‘Covered Up’ Her Sexual Assault, Courts Released Attacker

Anna Giaritelli, a homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner, revealed that she was “violently attacked and sexually assaulted” in Washington, D.C., and that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) refused to log the incident in official crime statistics, according to her first-hand account posted on X.

Broad-Daylight Assault Near U.S. Capitol

Giaritelli said the attack happened on a Saturday morning in 2020 as she walked from her Capitol Hill apartment to a nearby post office. “Just one block from my apartment… I was attacked by a large man well over six feet tall,” she wrote. The assault took place in broad daylight on 2nd Street NE, near Union Station.

She credits a construction worker named Donny for running to her rescue after hearing her screams. “If it had not been for others in the vicinity… I don’t know if I would be here today.”

Crime Not Counted in D.C. Data

Although her attacker — described as a homeless man — was apprehended months later and sentenced to prison, Giaritelli says the assault never appeared in MPD’s online “Crime Cards” database.

When she asked about it in 2020, MPD reportedly told her the map only tracks certain 1st-degree felonies, excluding many robberies, assaults, and sexual abuse cases deemed “less egregious.”

This week, MPD told her the system now includes “some sex abuse charges, but not all,” and her case still doesn’t appear.

“The pain you suffered was not severe enough, according to MPD’s standards,” she wrote.

Repeat Offender Freed Multiple Times

Giaritelli praised MPD’s initial investigation, noting they collected DNA that matched a suspect within two months.

However, she said the judge released the man immediately, even as he faced five other arrests before trial for her assault. Each time, he was freed from jail.

She feared he was back “living in a tunnel” just blocks away during the months before his trial.