MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Police took a sexual battery suspect into custody following a traffic stop in southwest Miami-Dade on Friday; he’s accused of attacking an employee of a Miami Gardens self-storage facility over the summer under the guise of checking out a unit.
According to a Miami Gardens Police Department arrest report, the crime happened at around 3 p.m. on June 20.
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The location was partially redacted from the report, though a listed address number appears to correspond with US Storage Centers, located just north of Hard Rock Stadium at 2765 NW 207th St.
Police said the victim called authorities after the assault to report that “a customer tried to rape her inside one of the storage units.”
According to the report, the woman was able to identify the assailant as a previous patron, David Joseph. The 35-year-old’s address is listed as being just a few blocks northwest of US Storage Centers.
Six days later, police said the woman provided a sworn statement about the attack.
They said she told detectives that Joseph had walked in the business and “asked to see the smallest unit available.”
The report states that the pair went to the unit and Joseph tried kissing the victim inside of an elevator “and she just backed up from him.”
Authorities said when they got to the unit, Joseph “grabbed her arm” as she stood in the doorway and “pulled her inside the unit and forcefully pulled her pants down,” then touched her genitals and tried to perform oral sex on her.
The report states the woman “yelled” at Joseph and told him there were cameras, at which point, he stopped.
“She stated she remained calm and they both walked out,” police wrote. “The victim stated that she placed her arm out in front of her to create distance between them and walked that way onto the elevator and off the elevator until they got on the golf cart to head back to the office.”
Authorities said Joseph drove off in an SUV.
The report states that detectives put out a probable cause flyer for Joseph and a Miami-Dade police officer would locate him driving in the Leisure City area on Friday.
Police said that the officer pulled Joseph over at Southwest 144th Avenue and 288th Street and took him into custody.
A Miami Gardens detective went to the Miami-Dade Police Department’s station in Cutler Bay in an attempt to speak with Joseph, but he exercised his right to remain silent, police said.
Joseph, facing a charge of sexual battery, remained behind bars in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $50,000 bond as of early Monday afternoon.