DOVER, Del. – An airman stationed at Dover Air Force Base was charged this week with raping a runaway 14-year-old girl, police said.
Dover police were contacted in November by the girl's guardian, who learned that the girl was staying at a local apartment complex, police spokesman M. Cpl. Mark Hoffman said in a press release. Officers went to the apartment, where they found the girl and 21-year-old Zepplin Taylor-McGinness.
Dover police and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations launched a joint investigation, in which they learned that Taylor-McGinness had allegedly engaged in sexual acts with the girl on several occasions.
Taylor-McGinness was arrested Monday and charged with four counts of second-degree rape and child endangerment.
He was being held in lieu of $100,500 secured bond. It was not immediately clear whether Taylor-McGinness has a lawyer.
The arrest of Taylor-McGinness comes as a former airman who also was stationed at Dover awaits sentencing for sexual abuse of another teenage runaway.
Dalian Washington, who is to be sentenced Feb. 21, faces at least 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to child sex trafficking.
Washington and another airman, Akeem Beazer, were arrested last April after a young teen, who officials say had a troubled home life and often lived on the street, told a social worker that she had stayed on the military base and had sex with service members.
Beazer was sentenced last month to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor.
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