Rape Suspect to Face Charges in Glendale

A 30-year-old Burbank man who served nine years in prison after pleading guilty in 1976 to a series of rapes in Van Nuys and North Hollywood is expected to be returned to Glendale late this week to face charges of rape and kidnaping, officials said Saturday.

Rodney Richard Ransom agreed Friday to be extradited from Gallup, N. M., to Glendale after he pleaded guilty in Gallup to unrelated armed robbery, burglary and escape charges, Gallup Deputy Dist. Atty. Dave Pederson said.

Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Howard Swart said Ransom had been ordered in 1976 to stand trial in Van Nuys Superior Court on 37 felony counts involving the rapes of 12 women in Van Nuys and North Hollywood between April 1, 1975, and Jan. 23, 1976. Swart said Ransom pleaded guilty in the case, but he could not recall how many counts that plea had involved.

Released Last Fall

Ransom served his term and was released last fall, when he returned to Burbank, Pederson said.

On April 16, Ransom was arrested in Gallup on charges relating to an auto theft in Arizona. A routine check showed that he was a suspect in the rape and kidnaping last March in Glendale, Pederson said.

Ransom subsequently escaped from Gallup-McKinley County Jail on April 23 when a jail door was left open, Pederson said. While out of jail, Pederson said, Ransom burglarized a home, robbed two convenience stores and stole a car in a series of crimes that led from New Mexico to Utah.

Recaptured April 27

He was recaptured on April 27 after he ran a roadblock at the Utah-Arizona border and led Navajo tribal police on a 60-mile chase across the Arizona desert, Pederson said. He was captured and taken back to Gallup.

Through an arrangement with the district attorney’s office in Gallup, Ransom pleaded guilty on the condition that any New Mexico prison sentence be served concurrently with any subsequent sentence he might receive in California, Pederson said. Ransom faces a maximum sentence of 13 1/2 years on the charges in New Mexico, Pederson said.

Ransom will be taken to court in New Mexico on Friday for formal sentencing, then transported to Glendale. He is being held in the Gallup-McKinley County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Glendale police detectives could not be reached for comment Saturday.