‘I’ve waited five years to share it…’

A violent sexual assault that occurred in Washington, D.C., five years ago was reportedly scrubbed from the city’s crime statistics.

This is according to Anna Giaritelli, a longtime Washington Examiner reporter who penned a report published Thursday describing the horrific attack that she experienced on a Saturday morning in 2020.

—THREAD—

This is the most important story I’ve told. It’s my story. I’ve waited five years to share it, and I’m ready now.

I’m Anna Giaritelli. The DC police are covering up crime. I know because they covered up what happened to me.https://t.co/yk5N7j7XQ9

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) August 14, 2025

“I walked out of my apartment on Capitol Hill to mail a package at a post office several blocks from the U.S. Capitol,” she wrote in the report. “I put on my black sweatshirt and black sweatpants then headed out the door. I never made it to the post office.”

“Just one block from my apartment building’s entrance, I was attacked by a large man well over six feet tall. He charged at me for a reason that I still do not understand. In broad daylight and on well-traveled 2nd Street NE next to Union Station, I fought to get away as he sexually assaulted me,” she added.

She only made it out safe and sound because of the help of “others in the vicinity, including a construction worker named Donny who heard my screaming and ran to my rescue.”

Thankfully, her attacker was arrested a few months later and charged.

But there were a few problems, starting with the fact that the D.C. police, aka the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), subsequently decided to cover up her sexual assault.

“MPD’s ‘Crime Cards’ online statistics page omits mentioning it,” she explained. “When I asked MPD in 2020 why my incident was not on its crime map, an MPD spokesman said the city only includes 1st degree felonies under its crime stats.”

“That would mean that for every person robbed, assaulted, or sexually abused in anything less than egregious ways, you have not been counted into the total tally. The pain you suffered was not severe enough, according to MPD’s standards,” she added.

To this day, her sexual assault remains unlisted:

In a follow-up email to @DCPoliceDept this week, an MPD spokesperson stated after a back-and-forth exchange that the map includes some sex abuse charges, but not all of them. In my case, my attacker’s crime against me, which landed him in prison, is still not listed.

The 54 sex… pic.twitter.com/YmKOMnDVfl

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) August 14, 2025

According to Giaritelli, the courts also decided to go soft on her attacker.

“Police arrested him, but he was immediately released from jail by the judge who presided over the case,” she revealed. “The assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted my case told me it was to keep the D.C. jail from overcrowding.”

“Trial proceedings were set to begin in the fall of 2020, but amid the George Floyd riots in downtown Washington, it was delayed until early 2021. Then, the early 2021 start was delayed until the end of 2021,” she continued.

She suspects that local prosecutors had been too busy at the time prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters like this grandmother:

Meanwhile, Antifa continues to roam freely in our streets. https://t.co/LunYSyWbb8 pic.twitter.com/6AW9tnkh7I

— BPR (@BIZPACReview) June 24, 2021

As prosecutors continued delaying, the man remained free and was predictably arrested in five other incidents. And just like before, each arrest ended with him being released back onto the streets.

Not til way later was her attacker finally hauled off to prison.

Concluding her story, Giaritelli slammed the MPD for hiding the truth about violent crime from the public.

“The truth of what happened to me and the D.C. government’s role in it is as much a public scandal as it is a personal trauma,” she wrote. “D.C. police covered up the unspeakable wrong that the stranger did to me.”

“Even though a judge sentenced my attacker to hard time in prison, D.C. police leadership would rather deceive the public and appear less dangerous than list mine and countless other sexual assaults on their website,” she added.

Her report comes amid another report from the Washington Free Beacon about how D.C. has quietly settled a lawsuit from a police sergeant, Charlotte Djossou, who’d accused the MPD of purposefully misclassifying violent crimes to make D.C. look safer.

Here’s the key paragraph from the story:

“The New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico have all cited data from the Metropolitan Police Department to contend that D.C. crime is low and Trump’s crackdown is unnecessary. That coverage did not mention whistleblowers like Djossou, nor did it disclose that a D.C. police commander is currently on leave after the city’s police union accused him of manipulating crime stats.”

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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