Panorama City Man Held in Rape of Blind CSUN Student

A 26-year-old Panorama City man who once attended California State University, Northridge, in a program for ex-convicts was charged Monday with the Sept. 11 rape of a 17-year-old blind student and the robbery of her 18-year-old roommate in a university dormitory, police said.

A warrant for the arrest of Joseph Richard Taylor was issued in October after the 18-year-old victim and another student, who had seen the assailant talking to the blind girl, identified him from photographs, Los Angeles police said.

Detective Lyle Mayer said Taylor gave the name Mike Bailey when taken into custody Saturday on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon stemming from an incident at his Parthenia Street apartment.

Mayer said Detective James Leahy became suspicious of the man’s identity when he started to sign a police report with a name other than Bailey.

Mayer said a check of fingerprints led police to conclude the suspect was Taylor.

“Apparently, for a moment, he forgot who he was supposed to be,” Mayer said.

According to university police, the assailant followed the blind victim to her room in the University Tower Apartments after conversing with her in the lobby, forced his way into the apartment and threatened her with a knife before raping her.

Then he found her roommate in the bedroom, where he choked her, tied her up with tape and took $20 from her, police said.

A university police spokesman said Taylor attended the university in the 1980-81 school year under a program in which former convicts received special counseling and tutoring while attending regular classes.

Taylor, who is to be arraigned in Van Nuys Municipal Court today, is being held without bail in Van Nuys Jail.