Fugitive coach arrested in Poland

A Fairfax County man who fled the country after his arrest for molesting a 12-year-old boy has been captured in Poland and now awaits extradition back to Fairfax, authorities said Thursday.

John E. Hamilton, 39, of Centreville, formerly coached baseball in the Fort Hunt Youth Athletic Association. A boy who played for him in 1997 contacted Fairfax police in 2009 to allege that he’d been sexually assaulted years earlier.

John E. Hamilton

Hamilton was charged in June 2009 with aggravated sexual battery and three counts of taking indecent liberties with a child under his supervision. He was scheduled to plead guilty in October, but instead disappeared.

Interpol and the U.S. Marshals Service joined the hunt for Hamilton, and in July began tracking Hamilton’s movements between Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to Billy Sorukas, chief of international investigations for the marshals service.

On Wednesday, Sorukas said, Hamilton was on a bus leaving the Czech Republic and entering Poland at the border town of Gliwice. He said Hamilton “appeared to be acting in a suspicious manner, and was unable to provide identification.”

Polish border officials were able to determine his identity from other documents Hamilton was carrying, Sorukas said, and contacted Interpol late Wednesday. Officials in Washington sent Hamilton’s fingerprints to Poland and confirmed his identity, Sorukas said.

This item has been updated since it was first published.

-- Tom Jackman