The young woman, nervous but composed, said she sees her attacker every night when she goes to sleep. The man charged in the rape - a twice-convicted sex offender who had slipped through monitoring by Anne Arundel County police - smirked and shook his head.

For the first time since the October attack at a Linthicum light rail station, Eugene Waller and his accuser met in a courtroom yesterday for a motions hearing. As his lawyers unsuccessfully sought to bar the woman's previous identification of him from trial, the woman testified that she is sure she was right.

"There was no question in my mind that that was the man that assaulted me," said the woman, who was 22 at the time of the attack and grew agitated as defense attorneys questioned her. "After someone touches you like that, you don't forget what they look like."

Waller has a history of violent sexual assaults and other sex-related offenses, several at light rail stations. He had been convicted of rape in 1977 and 1984. Released in 2003, he was twice arrested for exposing himself and masturbating in front of women on trains.

Days before the October attack, Waller was acquitted on a technicality of indecent exposure on another light rail train and walked out of a courtroom, though a warrant should have been out for his arrest for failing to register a current address.

For more than a year before that, authorities in two jurisdictions had been unsuccessful in locating him, and he had been inadvertently left off of the state's public database for sex offenders. Anne Arundel County police told The Sun in December that they had become wrongly convinced that it was not their responsibility to locate him.

Waller is charged with rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment and sex offenses. In advance of his trial next month, his attorneys also sought to have his statements to police tossed out.

Yesterday's hearing required police officers who went to the scene and the accuser to testify about the incident.

Mike Lyons, a friend of the victim who considers himself an uncle, accompanied her to the Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse yesterday. She was living in the Baltimore area at the time of the incident but has since moved back to the Eastern Shore and has battled depression, he said.

"She was scared to come up here, but she wants to see justice served," Lyons said.

The Sun does not identify victims of sexual assault.

According to officers who testified yesterday, Waller referred to the girl as a "stupid crackhead" and said he was "at the wrong place at the wrong time" as evidence was collected from his body at Harbor Hospital. He had been transported there after banging his head against the wall in his cell - injuring his jaw - while saying, "Jesus got me."

Waller limped yesterday and used a crutch. He listened intently to the testimony, often shaking his head or smiling. At one point, he audibly scoffed as an officer described the chase that led to his apprehension.

According to charging documents, the woman told police she was sitting on a bench at the Nursery Road light rail station when a man jammed what she believed to be a gun into her side and dragged her down a hill, through a wooded area and into a clearing. He is accused of forcing her to have sex repeatedly. She freed herself and ran toward the Patapsco River, swimming to safety and flagging down a motorist.

Cpl. Kenneth Edmonds of the county police Northern District, said he was one of the first on the scene and led the girl back down the clearing as she described the suspect as about 50 years old and wearing a white sweat shirt, gym shorts and dark tennis shoes.

Edmonds said the man matching the description suddenly emerged from about 100 yards away and appeared to be reaching into his waistband before fleeing back into the woods.

The officer said he dived into the water to chase Waller and eventually caught up with him.

Officers led Waller back up to the light rail platform, where the woman quickly identified him without being asked.

Defense attorneys Elizabeth Palan and Denis O'Connell argued that having the woman identify Waller on the spot was unnecessary and suggestive, but Judge Paul Hackner said it was a logical step to ensure they had the right person.

Hackner also denied defense motions to exclude Waller's statements to police at the hospital and during an hour-and-a-half interview at a police station during which he waived his Miranda rights.

justin.fenton@baltsun.com