Man assaults woman jogging…who turns out to be a federal marshal

TheUSmarshalBadgePoor Robert Flynn. He had his routine down pat–run up behind an unsuspecting jogger and then pull down her shorts and dash away–and then one day the woman he attempted to pants turned out be be an off-duty federal marshal.

After allegedly attacking her by grabbing her behind and pulling down her shorts, Flynn took off running and the victim/federal marshal ran after him, the station said.

That is when victim yelled, “Federal marshal, stop!”

She caught up with him a few blocks away, cornered him, and when he resisted, she kicked him in the crotch, CBS Pittsburgh reported.

Flynn is suspected of lifting up another woman’s skirt earlier that day (a busy Tuesday of sexual assault for this guy!) and now faces charges of aggravated assault, indecent assault, and escape. It’s unfortunate that, in a culture in which harassment like this is disturbingly normalized, it often takes a chance encounter with an law enforcement agent — or dedicated teen girl runner — to bring guys like this to justice. But still, I’m enjoying imagining his face when he heard “Federal marshal, stop.”

(h/t Goody)

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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