Edgewood Man Pleads Guilty To Attempted 2nd-Degree Rape, Drug Possession: Prosecutor

EDGEWOOD, MD — A 68-year-old Edgewood man has pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree rape and possession with intent to distribute cocaine in two separate cases that date back to January.

According to court documents, on Jan. 24, Bernard Lamont Staten saw a woman stranded on the side of the road who was waiting on a tow truck. He stopped and offered to give the stranger a ride to her home in Westminster. Instead, he took the woman to the Motel 6 in Edgewood where he grabbed her arm, forced her out of his truck and took her to a room he had rented at the motel.

Once inside his room, he pushed the woman onto the bed and attempted to rape her. She tried to scream and refuse his advances, according to the prosecution, so Staten placed a pillow over her face to try and quiet her while he tried to pull off her pants. The woman continued to yell and began kicking the wall and fighting off Staten. Eventually, she kicked him in the groin and ran out of the room, court documents stated.

The woman found a guest in another room who called police for her. Staten tried to lure the woman back to his vehicle by telling her he had her wedding rings, which he had pulled off her finger in the truck. She refused to go to his truck. Harford County sheriff's deputies arrived and took command of the situation.

While detectives were carrying out a search and seizure warrant on Staten's Chevy Avalanche that he drove the woman in to the motel two days later, they found the woman's rings and more than 13 grams of crack cocaine in individually wrapped bags in the vehicle along with $965 in cash on Staten when he was arrested.

Staten will be sentenced to serve 30 years with 20 years for attempted second-degree rape and 10 years for the possession with intent to distribute charge.

“Given the defendant’s age, a 30-year sentence in these cases ensures that the community will never again be at risk to be victimized by this defendant. In addition, it also continues our message to our community that we will not tolerate these acts of violence, distribution of drugs or any type of crime for that matter in Harford County. I commend the victim in this case for her strength on the night of this incident and hope that she will feel safe knowing that Mr. Staten is no longer a threat to her or this community," said State’s Attorney Alison M. Healey.