An Oakland woman offered man tea and a place to sleep. That night he tried to rape her, police say

OAKLAND — It was midnight on July 16 when Jane Doe was attacked in her sleep, allegedly by a man to whom she’d shown nothing but compassion.

Hours earlier, 33-year-old Maurice Henderson showed up to the woman’s Oakland doorstep begging for a place to sleep. She’d offered to allow him to stay on her back porch and made him a cup of tea. Then, in the middle of the night, Henderson allegedly broke into her home and attacked, grabbing at her genitals and attempting to rape her as she screamed and fought, according to police.

He allegedly covered her mouth with his hand as she continued to attempt to kick him off. The attack stopped when she reached for his heartstrings, reminding him that she’d made him tea and invited him to her property because he wanted him to feel safe. The last ditch appeal to his humanity worked; Henderson allegedly stopped, got dressed and left, according to court records.

That’s when the woman called police. Now, Henderson is being held in Dublin’s Santa Rita Jail without bail, facing charges of sexual assault during burglary, attempted rape, kidnapping to commit a sex crime, and first degree residential burglary, according to court records.

When the woman agreed to let Henderson stay in her back yard, she couldn’t have known that in 2019 he was accused of an eerily similar offense. On Aug. 2 of that year, in Albany, Henderson allegedly broke into a condo in the middle of the night and attacked a woman who came to the Bay Area to visit family.

“He had his right hand over my mouth, and he had his left hand behind my head, and my arms were down to my side in bed,” the victim in that case testified in 2020. “And then he, with his hands, just kind of was trying to pull me up, pull my head up, and I assumed with that he was wanting me out of bed.”

He stopped the attack when nearby residents heard her screams and investigated, police said at the time.

Henderson was charged with kidnapping in that case. But he ended up pleading no contest to a burglary offense, in exchange for a two-year prison term, according to court records. At the time, Albany police said the offense fit into a pattern of similar burglaries, where the suspect would enter unlocked home, then “walk into the bedrooms where residents were sleeping and stand over them until they awoke.”

Henderson is scheduled to enter a plea on July 31. The charging records say he has five felony convictions dating back to 2015, most recently a 2022 conviction of carrying a concealed dirk or dagger in San Mateo County.