An incarcerated man is facing new rape and kidnapping charges after a DNA database search tied him to an abduction and sexual assault that police say happened 25 years ago in Northeast Baltimore.
Michael Harris, 50, who is serving time at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown for an unrelated case, was indicted last week on charges stemming from a woman’s report in June 2000 that she had been forced into a car at gunpoint, driven away and raped.
Harris is represented by the Office of the Public Defender, which did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Baltimore Police said in 2000 that a man told officers that he and his girlfriend had just left dinner at a Harford Road restaurant when they were both robbed by two masked suspects. One of them stole the man’s Acura, while the other ordered the woman into a Nissan and drove off, he said, according to charging papers against Harris.
Police found the woman early that morning near Baltimore City College, where she said the suspect had threatened to “kill her if she did not do what he told her to do,” according to charging documents. He ordered her to undress and forced sexual intercourse on her, she said. After the attack, the suspect made her get out of the vehicle then drove off, according to police.
Authorities spotted the stolen Acura in East Baltimore days later and, after a four-mile pursuit that ended in Baltimore County, arrested two brothers, who were 22 and 16. Neither of them was charged with rape. A police spokesperson said at the time that rape charges had not been filed “pending further investigation.” The older brother ultimately pleaded guilty to armed carjacking, first-degree assault and weapons charges; the younger brother’s charges were shelved by prosecutors.
The woman took a sexual assault medical forensic examination at a hospital shortly after the attack. A DNA database search in January of this year resulted in a “high stringency match” between Harris’ DNA and a forensic specimen linked to the rape case, charging documents say.
Detectives formally interviewed the woman again this year, though she was unable to pick Harris out of six-person photo lineup, police wrote.
Harris has been incarcerated on various charges for more than a decade, according to court and prison records. He was accused of first-degree rape in 2009 in connection with another attack that took place less than two weeks before the Northeast Baltimore abduction. He ended up pleading guilty to first-degree assault in the earlier case, and received a 25-year sentence with15 years suspended, according to court records.
In the new case, Harris is charged with first- and second-degree rape, sodomy, various sex offenses, kidnapping, first- and second-degree assault, and handgun use. He is slated for an initial appearance in Baltimore Circuit Court next month.
Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at dbelson@baltsun.com, on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.