Sex Offender Arrested In Westminster Abduction, Rape

WESTMINSTER, Md. (WJZ) -- Authorities investigating a reported kidnapping in Westminster late Thursday night caught a sex offender in the act of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman, according to police.

A man called 911 about 11:20 p.m. to report that he and the victim had been walking along Winters Alley near Pennsylvania Avenue when they were confronted by a suspect, who implied he was armed and ordered them to get on the ground, according to police.

Then the suspect grabbed the victim and forced her to walk toward Pennsylvania Avenue, her friend told investigators.

Officers and Carroll County Sheriff's deputies later found the pair in the back yard of a home in the unit block of Pennsylvania Avenue where police say the suspect was attacking the victim.

The victim was taken to Carroll Hospital Center for treatment.

The suspect, later identified as David John Stultz, 48, of Westminster, was taken into custody. Stultz, a Tier III registered sex offender, is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and second-degree assault.

Stultz was previously convicted of second-degree rape on April 6, 1998, according to online court records. Before that, Stultz was indicted in Allegany County Circuit Court on Jan. 31, 2007 for a list of criminal counts, including second- and third-degree sexual offense, second-degree assault and sodomy, but those charges were later abandoned.