Guilty plea in attacks on three Seattle joggers

Published 9:05 pm Monday, April 2, 2012

SEATTLE — A Seattle man has pleaded guilty to grabbing three women who were jogging in West Seattle’s Lincoln Park.

King County prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe said 47-year-old Duane Starkenburg pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree assault with sexual motivation. The attacks took place in 2010 and 2011.

In each case, Donohoe says the attacker would grab a female jogger and push his face into the victim’s buttocks. Starkenburg initially claimed he just slipped and fell.

The man also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of second-degree child molestation in an assault about 10 years ago on a girl who was then 9 or 10. That case was recently reported.

Prosecutors will recommend more than 9 ½ years in prison when Starkenburg is sentenced April 13.