A 27-year-old homeless man from San Francisco, who is a registered sex offender, was charged Friday for allegedly raping a woman partying at a Christmas event who was then allegedly forced off BART and assaulted near a Kentucky Fried Chicken, according to police and charging documents.
Meini Foster was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on those charges, which include kidnap, rape, drugs and oral copulation in Alameda County Superior Court.
"It’s one of the worst kind of crimes," San Leandro Sgt. Robert McManus said at a Friday news conference.
Police said the 20-something woman had been at a work-related Christmas party on Dec. 15 when she hopped on the Powell Street BART about 11 p.m.
In police documents, police officer Deborah Trujillo described the woman as “so intoxicated, she falls forward onto her hands and knees” and “swaying back and forth.”
She then got on the Dublin/Pleasanton train, and was seen leaving the Bay Fair BART station in San Leandro about 1 a.m. the next day, police reports state.
Witnesses saw Foster leading her down the stairs toward the exit. She is seen stumbling, the report states, and Foster takes her into the BART parking lot. He assaults her near the railroad tracks between Hesperian Boulevard and Halcyon Drive, the report states. She yells for help. She fights him. But he continued to assault her, the report states.
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Finally, he leaves her in the mud. She’s not from San Leandro, but she’s able to find someone’s house about 3 a.m. and knocks on a door for help. The homeowner thought she was a burglar and told her to leave. The homeowner called 911, and at that point, police find the woman and take her to the hospital where they conduct a rape test on her, the report states. The DNA found on the woman, police said, matched Foster’s.
Foster was arrested on Dec. 27 at the Civic Center in San Francisco, but the DNA evidence was returned on Thursday.
Authorities are at ease knowing that Foster is no longer causing serious harm to innocent victims.
"It's safer on the streets," McManus said. "It's safer on public transit because of the fact that Meini Foster is in police custody."
Foster's criminal history includes an arrest for sexual battery last June when he was caught masturbating in front of a minor on a San Francisco Muni bus. Officials recommended that Foster be outfitted with a GPS tracking device at that time, but a presiding judge did not follow through with that request.
San Leandro police say 27 yr old Mieni Foster forced woman off BART train as she was heading home from Christmas party & brutally raped her pic.twitter.com/zfsSxBHdHc — Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) January 6, 2017
San Leandro police describe brutal attack on woman who they say was forced off BART by transient Mieni Foster & sexually assaulted pic.twitter.com/SUeIsm6gGC — Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) January 6, 2017
