Suspect Held in Sex Assaults on 4 Prostitutes

Sheriff’s deputies Friday night arrested an unemployed Hollywood accountant who is suspected of sexually assaulting four prostitutes in an isolated section of Canyon Country during the past month.

Rabih Alkharsa, 33, was arrested shortly after he allegedly raped a 17-year-old prostitute he had picked up in Hollywood and brought to an area near the Agua Dulce Canyon Road exit of the Antelope Valley Freeway, said Sgt. James Rupsa.

Deputies had been staking out the area for several days because three other women had been sexually assaulted there since April 13, Rupsa said. Another woman, who was hitchhiking in Hollywood, had been taken to the same location but had escaped, authorities said.

Saw Suspect’s Car

Rupsa said the teen-ager had just put her clothes back on at about 10 p.m. Friday when Deputies Bob Bullard and Jerry Harper drove by and saw the suspect’s copper-colored Honda.

When deputies switched on their red lights, Alkharsa told the girl to “tell them you’re my girlfriend,” Rupsa said.

Alkharsa had picked up the girl earlier Friday night at Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Hollywood and they had agreed upon a price for a sex act, authorities said. The suspect told the woman he would take her to his house in the hills.

Ordered to Disrobe

When Alkharsa pulled off on the road, he grabbed the girl around the neck and ordered her to disrobe, Rupsa said. The victim told authorities he also threatened her with a knife.

At the time of the arrest, Alkharsa was wearing a black wig, authorities said. The four other victims, who also had been picked up in the Hollywood area, had described their assailant as having a receding hairline.

In connection with the five cases, Alkharsa is charged with kidnaping, rape by force, oral copulation, felonious assault, sodomy, robbery and false imprisonment, Rupsa said. He is in jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.