19-year-old charged in case where woman attacked after warning others of man fondling himself

SEATTLE -- A 19-year-old man has been formally charged in the case of a 35-year-old Federal Way woman who was attacked by a man who she said had exposed himself to her and who she had warned others about. She suffered four broken bones in her face.

Polevia Valoaga, of Federal Way, was charged Tuesday with indecent liberties and ordered held in the King County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 4.

Police initially arrested Valoaga on suspicion of indecent liberties and first-degree assault, but King County prosecutors only charged him with indecent liberties.

On the night of Nov. 13, Federal Way police say, Valoaga drove up to Amanda Edwards in the parking lot of Safeway at SW 336th and 21 Avenue SW to ask for directions. When she approached his vehicle, Edwards said, Valoaga was masturbating and grinning widely at her. Edwards yelled at him to leave.

Police say the suspect drove slowly toward a Rite Aid, where another woman and a 9-year-girl were coming out of the store and approaching him. Edwards yelled at the woman not to speak to Valoaga and then tried to take a photo of his license plate with her cell phone but was unable to.

Edwards told police that Valoaga paced her in his car as she walked home but then drove off. She was fearful and looked for him but thought he had left. Then, in the middle of 342nd street, police say, Valoaga came up to Edwards, put his left arm around her chest and pinned her to him before jamming his right hand down into her pants between her legs and sexually assaulting her.

"He was extremely aggressive and when he came up and he said ‘I got you’ and when he started laughing--it was one of the most evil laughs I’ve heard," Edwards told Q13 News in an interview. "I mean to me he had a rapist mentality."

She was able to see his face.

"The next thing I know I was waking up on the ground," said Edwards, who told the police she wasn't sure how she ended up on the ground.

"I didn’t realize I had been hit multiple times in my face," she told Q13 News.

She suffered four fractures to her face that will require a metal plate and reconstructive surgery.

Please donate here to help her with her surgery costs if you can. https://www.gofundme.com/single-mother-savagely-beaten

After we aired her interview last Thursday night, Federal Way police received multiple Q13 News viewer tips, including one with a partial license plate. Detectives tracked that plate to a home on 20th Avenue SW where they arrested Valoaga. Detectives say Edwards positively identified him. Valoaga's criminal history shows 8 arrests with several pending court cases and two convictions for misdemeanor assault.