The attack "never should have happened," Wright added.

Seven years ago, at age 19, Jose Carrasquillo was accused of trying to rape a woman in Kensington, just a half block from the day-care center.

Ramsey said that the 2002 case was one of 17 arrests that litter Carrasquillo's adult criminal record.

The details of the case may offer an eerie insight into the latest accusation.

About 1:30 a.m. on April 16, 2002, a woman walking by herself was approached on Potter Street near F Street by a man whom she later identified as Carrasquillo, according to court records.

She said he attempted to engage her in conversation and grabbed her breasts before he latched on to her throat and dragged her into a nearby alleyway, police said.

As he pulled the woman, Carrasquillo allegedly said: "Get in the alley. I'm not playing. You're gonna give me p----," court records stated.

The victim began to scream for her landlord, which caused her attacker to flee on foot, police said.

The woman was able to run home and call 9-1-1, and as a result of information she provided, police stopped and arrested Carrasquillo.

The charges were withdrawn by the prosecution, though the spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office yesterday wasn't immediately able to say why.

When arrested yesterday, Carrasquillo was serving state probation on drug charges and is scheduled for trial in June on additional drug charges.

Carrasquillo's relatives quietly mulled over the latest case to which he is now linked.

Jose Carrasquillo's older brother, Alex, 28, speaking as if his brother is guilty, said that the attack was "wrong" but that it was the result of a years-long drug habit.

"Everybody knows him to be a good dude. He got a drug problem," he said yesterday afternoon from his home on Wishart Street near Howard, a few blocks from where Jose Carrasquillo was attacked and arrested. "If he wasn't messed up, he never would have done it. You can't only blame it on him."

Jose Carrasquillo's aunt Tammy Rhodes, who'd seen Carrasquillo the day before the girl was attacked, said Carrasquillo's behavior spiraled down after the death of his mother in 1999, and then his grandmother two years ago. "He was miserable. He wasn't working," she said.

But she said she's still troubled over it. "I'm just in shock that that activity would hit his mind," she said. "What pushed him into the situation?" she asked before entering her car and driving off.

Police said that during the attack, the assailant told the girl his name was Alex. But last night, Alex seemed unfazed by the claim.

"Me and my brother is real close," said Alex, Jose's older brother. "That's my heart right there. He's not trying to put me out there, not trying to play me out. I don't hold nothing against him." *