Police say FBI agent sexually assaulted 2 women after promise of free tattoos, modeling

John McCarthy, state's attorney for Montgomery County, right, speaks to reporters outside of the Montgomery County District Court in Rockville, Md., Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

An FBI agent charged in Maryland with sexually assaulting two women contacted his alleged victims through social media with a promise to give them free tattoos and modeling work, police said Tuesday as they encouraged other potential victims to come forward.

Neither woman knew that their alleged assailant, Eduardo Valdivia, was an FBI agent, Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Nicholas Augustine said during a news conference.

Valdivia used aliases, including Lalo Brown and “El Boogie,” as he contacted the women through an Instagram account for a tattoo parlor in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to police.

Valdivia sexually assaulted the women — both of whom are in their 20s — during photo shoots at a tattoo studio and at a hotel, police said. Both women told police that they feared Valdivia would have caused them more harm if they tried to resist or leave, according to a police affidavit.

Valdivia presented the women with modeling contracts and threatened to take legal action if they didn’t return to model for him, Augustine said.

Police detectives suspect that Valdivia may have sexually assaulted other women under similar circumstances, according to the assistant chief.

“I would like to thank the victims that did come forward. They have now stopped this contact going on in our community and being brave to come forward to notify the police about what was going on, which most likely saved other people from being victimized,” Augustine said.

Defense attorney Robert Bonsib said Valdivia’s interactions with the women were consensual.

“This conduct is not going to get you the first pew in the church,” Bonsib told reporters outside the courthouse. “You’ve got to be realistic about the nature of what was going on. This was not criminal conduct.”

A state district court judge on Tuesday ordered Valdivia jailed without bond, deciding he poses a danger to the community and a flight risk. A prosecutor, Rachel Morris, said during the hearing that a third potential victim had come forward and was being interviewed by police “as we speak.”

Valdivia has been suspended by the FBI pending the conclusion of the police investigation. “The FBI takes allegations of criminal violations and misconduct very seriously,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “Because this is an ongoing investigation, the FBI cannot comment further.”

Valdivia, 40, of Gaithersburg, previously was charged and acquitted in 2022 of attempted second-degree murder and other charges stemming from an off-duty shooting aboard a moving Metro train near Washington, D.C.

Online court records show Valdivia now faces felony and misdemeanor charges, including two counts of second-degree rape. The alleged offenses date to May 2024 and September 2024.

Police began investigating in October. The women were initially reluctant to come forward because they felt “held back” by language in contracts they signed to do modeling work, Augustine said.

“We don’t know how long the business had been open, but he has been doing tattoos at least since February,” Augustine said.

During the bond hearing, Bonsib read aloud emails that he said the women sent to Valdivia. He pointed to the emails as evidence that the encounters were consensual.

Bonsib acknowledged that Valdivia posed as a modeling agency operator named Dr. Tiffany Kim in sending emails to the women about modeling contracts.

One of the women told police that she found a photo taken of her by Valdivia posted on an Instagram page. A mutual friend recognized a photo of the other alleged victim on the same page and arranged for the women to contact each other, the police affidavit says.

Bonsib has said Valdivia joined the FBI in 2011 and was promoted to supervisory special agent at the FBI headquarters in 2019.

On Dec. 15, 2020, a confrontation between Valdivia and an unarmed passenger swiftly escalated from a testy exchange of words to a shooting on a train approaching the Medical Center station in Bethesda, Maryland.

Valdivia shot and wounded the man from a distance of roughly two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 metres) after repeatedly telling the man to back up, county prosecutor Robert Hill said in court. The wounded man had part or all of his spleen, colon and pancreas removed during surgery after the shooting, Hill said.

Bonsib has said Valdivia acted in self-defense as the man approached him at the rear of a train car.