Dating apps and sexual assault

A Maryland man has been arrested after he sexually assaulted a woman he met on a dating app, police said.

The suspect is 23-year-old Michael Crutchfield.

On Christmas Eve, detectives responded to a hospital in Washington D.C., for a report of a sexual assault that occurred earlier that morning in Prince George’s County.

According to authorities, the woman met Crutchfield on a dating app a few hours prior to the assault.

Crutchfield picked up the woman from her home and then drove her to a parking garage in Temple Hills, where he falsely identified himself as a police officer and threatened her with a gun, the victim told police. He then sexually assaulted her. Following the assault, Crutchfield drove the victim home, authorities said.

During the investigation, Crutchfield was identified and arrested at his home.

Crutchfield is not a police officer and does not work for any law enforcement agency, authorities say. He was recently employed as a special officer working security for a private company in the District.

Court documents show Crutchfield was arrested in November 2018 for impersonating a police officer in Fairfax County on February of that year. The case was never prosecuted, and Crutchfield was released on personal recognizance.

He was been charged with first- and second-degree rape, perverted practice, the use of a firearm in a violent crime and related charges.