Jobless Glendale Resident Admits Raping Prostitutes

An unemployed Glendale man pleaded guilty to 10 counts of rape, forcible oral copulation and rape with a foreign object last week in return for a promise of a prison sentence of 30 years.

A day after jury selection had begun in San Fernando Superior Court, William Earl Miller, 36, entered a guilty plea Friday to charges that he raped five prostitutes at gunpoint between November, 1984, and April, 1985.

Faced ‘Astronomical’ Term

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth A. Loveman said Miller had faced an “astronomical” prison sentence if convicted of the original 24 counts against him.

Miller could have been sentenced to eight years for each count, plus three years for each sexual act because of the use of a gun, the prosecutor said.

Under the agreement worked out with the district attorney’s office, Miller will be sentenced to six years in prison for each victim, Loveman said.

Five prostitutes testified during preliminary hearings that Miller picked them up in Hollywood and North Hollywood, promised them money for sex, then forced them at gunpoint to dress like teen-agers and act out his elaborate sexual fantasies, such as pretending that they were at rock concerts and becoming sexually aroused. He then raped them, and in some cases also raped them with a gun, the women said.

Loveman said Miller, an unemployed graphic artist, made a lengthy confession in which he described the acts in detail.

Miller claimed that the gun was only a replica. After Miller’s arrest, police found real and replica handguns in his car. It was not known which type he used.

Miller told officers that the assaults began after he was “robbed and humiliated” about two years ago by a prostitute’s boyfriend while Miller was having sex with her. Miller said he was “in some dumb way . . . trying to get revenge,” Loveman said.

Miller, who has been in County Jail since his arrest, will be sentenced March 21 by Superior Court Judge Edward I. Gorman.