Fueled by anger Berkeley sexual assault victim tracks down her assailant
BERKELEY -- For a year, a Berkeley woman wanted to tell her story of survival and how she helped police capture the man that sexually assaulted her.
But with the ongoing investigation and then the court proceedings, she felt she was silenced until now.
Jeannie Witkin was fueled by anger after a man assaulted her by on the streets of Berkeley. She was walking to a friends house in broad daylight and after the assault, she personally made sure he would pay for his crime.
"When that man grabbed me, I was furious and I wasn't going to take it and I didn't want him to get away with it," Witkin said.
The suspect made a huge mistake when he decided to make Witkin his next victim.
"I have a story to tell," she told KPIX. "Name him. Get him caught. Don't protect him. Don't feel ashamed. He should feel ashamed. Actions have consequences."
Witkin fought back with a vengeance when she was attacked in May of last year. First she yelled at him and then kicked him in the shin. It's what she did next that eventually put him behind bars.
"So I knelt down l, I grabbed my phone out of my back pack and I chased him down around the corner," she said. "Then I took a picture of him from the side. Then I was chasing him with a phone in my hand."
As she chased him, she called 911.
The suspect had already left the scene by the time officers arrived. While Berkeley Police investigated the case, she took another step to find her attacker.
"I can post this picture online," she said. "I get to do that. This person has given up any right to privacy and I'm going to put this out there because somebody knows how he is."
And it was on NextDoor where a neighbor recognized the man.
That led to the arrest of 45-year-old Tommy Giles Jr. Through forensic evidence he was connected to four other assaults. The victims ranging from 9 to 63 years old.
"I want to turn the tables," Witkins said. "It shouldn't be on us. It should be on them. If that's the problem men are having, I guess they need some extra support. If someone does that to me, I want to get him so he doesn't do it to anybody else."
Giles Jr didn't know any of his victims. The former security guard and notary public was sentenced to 28 years in prison this week, after pleading no contest to the charges.
