BALTIMORE (WMAR) — 50-year-old Richard Barnes has worked for the University of Maryland for 19 years, and he's been married for 18, but District Court Judge Joyce Baylor-Thompson said the allegations that he raped a woman posing as a police officer were far too troubling to consider releasing him on bail.
Neither the judge, nor the prosecutor or public defender outlined those allegations in court.
"The public defender does represent Mr. Barnes at this point, but I am not the attorney of record,” said Assistant Public Defender Aaron Dalton. “I have no additional comments I can provide."
But according to charging documents, Barnes allegedly raped a woman on Sunday, June 2, after the victim claims a Lyft driver had already sexually assaulted her in an alley where he pulled off during a ride to Charles Village.
The victim told police, Barnes pulled up behind them implying he was a cop, ordered her into his car and drove her to an undisclosed location where he raped her and then drove her back to the alley and dropped her off.
It was a case that prompted the Baltimore City Police Department to pull more than a hundred squad cars off the street to process for evidence before they learned the suspect was a special police officer for the University of Maryland.
A prosecutor also noted that Barnes had faced a charge of impersonating an officer before.
At the end of the proceeding, Barnes told the judge he needs to get home to his family, but bail had already been denied.
