Judge, the Victim, Is Detective in Rape Suspect’s Arrest

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Leslie A. Dunn ordinarily deals with crime from the bench, looking down from the heights of judicial impartiality.

But in this case, she was in the street, as both victim and detective.

The judge, who said a man tried to rape her as she jogged near her home in Tarzana on Jan. 4, helped track down a suspect.

Los Angeles Police Detective Bud Mehringer said Dunn identified Stephen Andrew Weible from police photos as the man who grabbed her from a residential street in Tarzana and attempted to rape her in his car. Dunn struggled with the man and escaped unhurt.

The suspect turned out to be someone the judge had sentenced when he came before her four years ago on an attempted rape charge, which prosecutors agreed to be plea-bargained to a misdemeanor. But police said they do not believe there is a connection between the judge’s role in the previous case and her attempted rape.

Weible, a 26-year-old car salesman from Tarzana, was charged Wednesday with kidnaping and assault with intent to commit rape. He was released after posting $75,000 bail. Arraignment will be March 10 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Weible was arrested Tuesday evening at a Van Nuys auto dealership where he is employed. Later, his home was searched after police obtained a search warrant, court records indicate.

According to the affidavit for the warrant, Dunn reported that on Jan. 16, almost two weeks after the attack, she saw her assailant driving on Ventura Boulevard in a late-model silver Camaro, but she was unable to obtain a license number.

The judge’s bailiff, Deputy County Marshal Jerry Kearns, staked out the area the next evening and spotted a man who fit the description Dunn had given, driving a silver Camaro, the affidavit states. Kearns noted the license number, which led police to Weible.

Mehringer said a subsequent investigation turned up evidence that tied Weible to the attack, but he would not elaborate.

Dunn had told police that she may have scratched her assailant’s face during the struggle, and blood samples were recovered from under her fingernails, Mehringer said. The detective said a sample of Weible’s blood has been taken and test results will be available in two to three weeks.