For the second time since May, a Gainesville woman was sexually assaulted near Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
On Saturday, police arrested 24-year-old Hykeem Vernon Ford-Marlin of Ocala, who faces charges of simple battery and indecent public exposure.
The woman, an employee with the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Project, was teaching an exercise class July 8 on the plaza when she went to use the plaza’s restroom, wrote Gainesville Police spokesperson Officer Ben Tobias in an email.
When she walked out of the restroom at about 11:53 a.m., Ford-Marlin attacked her, Tobias said.
Ford-Marlin, who had been waiting outside the bathroom door for the woman to exit, grabbed her by her arms and began kissing her breasts over her shirt, according to a GPD arrest report.
The woman then grabbed the small pocket knife she had been carrying to defend herself. Ford-Marlin responded by revealing his penis and masturbating in the woman’s direction before he ran away, Tobias said.
The woman met with police Saturday and identified Ford-Marlin, who was arrested at about 10 p.m. that day, in a photo lineup.
Tobias said the incident was the second case of battery against a female near Bo Diddley Plaza, located at 111 E. University Ave., in the past two months.
A female city employee was attacked by a homeless man May 10 on her way to her workplace at City Hall, located just across the street from Bo Diddley Plaza. The man pushed her down to the ground, climbed on top of her and tried to remove her bra, blouse and pants, according to Alligator archives. He only ran away after multiple employees, who heard the woman’s screams from inside, ran out to help her.
“Unfortunately the downtown area has historically been where some homeless persons congregate (and) some of those folks have issues that manifest themselves in behavior like this,” Tobias said.
The woman from the May 10 attack defended herself by fighting back and continually shouting for help, and the woman in the July 8 attack defended herself with the small pocket knife she carried on her person.
Tobias said while every individual is different, GPD recommends that “folks at least have a plan to protect themselves.”
Ford-Marlin was arrested and found guilty twice of trespassing charges in May and June and was arrested in March and April after being accused of loitering, according to the Alachua County clerk of court records.
As of press time he remains in the Alachua County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
