Charges dropped against Detroit pair accused in attack
Criminal charges were dropped Tuesday against a pair of men accused of pulling a woman off her bike and sexually assaulting her in 2016 in Highland Park.
Aaron Rashard Stewart, 22, and Quentin Davon Flemons, 19, both of Detroit, had been charged with an alleged kidnap, rape and unarmed robbery in Highland Park. The two men are still charged with a string of similar attacks in the Detroit-Hamtramck border, and the pair remain in Wayne County’s jail.
In the Highland Park case, Stewart is accused of pulling a 31-year-old Highland Park woman off her bike near Second and West McNichols around 3 a.m. July 18, 2016, and sexually assaulting and robbing her.
According to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, the Highland Park case only was dismissed without prejudice because the office was unable to proceed with the preliminary examination. The defendants were remanded back to the Wayne County Jail for cases in Detroit and Hamtramck.
“We did not state a reason on the record for the dismissal,” said Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.
Miller added charges can be reinstated since they were dismissed without prejudice.
Last month, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Stewart and Flemons with multiple criminal counts in a series of alleged attacks in which women say they were snatched off their bikes and raped. The alleged attacks, including the one the men were previously charged with in Highland Park, allegedly occurred over a 16-month period.
The incidents have been widely publicized and one of the alleged victims wrote about her attack in a post that went viral on Facebook.
Stewart and Flemons are accused of kidnapping a 27-year-old Hamtramck woman who was riding her bicycle near Denton and St. Aubin streets in Hamtramck around 6 p.m. Oct. 8. The video of the incident was shown in court during a hearing for the pair.
The woman told investigators she was forced into a vehicle and taken to an abandoned property in the 1600 block of Leslie in Hamtramck, where she was assaulted and robbed before escaping.
Stewart is charged with kidnapping, assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, receiving and concealing stolen property-motor vehicle, receiving and concealing stolen property-firearm, felony firearm, unarmed robbery and stealing/retaining a financial transaction device. Flemons has been similarly charged for the Hamtramck incident.
They also are charged in an incident around 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in Detroit. Stewart and Flemons allegedly kidnapped a 24-year-old Detroit woman from her bicycle on East Milwaukee near Orleans in Midtown, forced her into a vehicle, robbed and sexually assaulted her, then released her.
In the Detroit case, both were charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, unarmed robbery and associated charges. Stewart was jailed on a $1 million cash surety bond, while Flemons received one for $500,000.
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