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Floyd Galloway Takes Plea Deal In Hines Park Sex Assault Case

DETROIT (WWJ) - A man charged with an attempted sexual assault along a Hines Park jogging trail in Livonia has finally accepted a plea deal in the case.

Thirty-year-old Floyd Galloway Jr. on Tuesday pleaded guilty to attacking a 28-year-old jogger in September last year. Under the deal, he will serve 16 to 35 years in prison. He rejected two previous deals in the case.

Why change his mind now?

"I think this is something my client's been dealing with for a long time," said Galloway's defense attorney John Dakmak. "There's a lot at stake in this case; the risk of going to trial, the potential of losing as opposed to entering into this plea agreement."

"This was his decision," Dakmak added. "He thought about it for a long time."

Investigators say the victim was on a bike path, west of Levan, when the suspect attacked — strangling her and punching her in the face before dragging her into the woods toward the Rouge River. While she struggled, the man allegedly tried to take her clothes off, demanding sex — but the victim was able to fight him off and get away. She flagged down a passing motorist and used his phone to call 911 while the suspect fled on foot, police said.

Cell phone records and DNA tests helped make a case against Galloway, who was arrested and charged in the attack in June.

The attack on the Hines Park bicycle path happened two months before 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki went missing; Galloway has been questioned in the case.

Stislicki was last seen Dec. 2, 2016. She left her job at MetLife in Southfield and was supposed to meet a friend for dinner — but she never showed up. Her Jeep was found a day later, parked outside her home at the Independence Green apartments in the area of Halsted and Grand River in Farmington Hills — with her purse inside. Although police found no signs of a struggle, Ann Stislicki has said she suspects that her daughter was abducted.

Galloway's house was searched a couple of weeks after Stislicki disappeared. Police didn't say much about the search at the time, but neighbors say they saw officers taking a mattress and other items out of the 30-year-old's home.

Galloway was also employed by a company contracted to provide security for MetLife, where Stislicki worked, at the time of her disappearance, according to police.

Although he has been called a suspect in Stislicki's disappearance, he has not been charged in connection with that case.  Another defense attorney, Jim Williams has said Galloway has been wrongfully linked to Stislicki and is innocent of all charges.

Stislicki's mother, Anne Stislicki, was in the courtroom Tuesday morning.

"We came here today, my daughter Holly and I, to represent Danielle," she told WWJ's Charlie Langton and other reporters. "For the opportunity of maybe even a glimpse of seeing Floyd in that him knowing that we're here and that we're going to continue to be here."

Sentencing for Galloway is set for December 8.

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