Local News in Brief : Paroled Rapist Ordered to Stand Trial in Attack
A Sylmar man accused of sexually assaulting a 60-year-old woman who hired him through a state employment program was ordered Friday to stand trial on the charges.
The woman alleged in a preliminary hearing that David Peter Madsen, 29, forced her to perform sex acts after putting a knife to her throat in a June 10 assault. San Fernando Municipal Judge Paul I. Metzler ruled that there was sufficient evidence to hold Madsen for trial on six sexual assault charges.
Madsen, a convicted rapist free on parole, was hired to work at the woman’s Sylmar home through a program run by the state Employment Development Department, Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron L. Jenkins said. The woman who hired him alleged that he attacked her after working at her home for about two hours.
Sandie Isaacs, job services supervisor at the San Fernando office that referred Madsen, said applicants for the day-labor program are not screened for criminal backgrounds.
“We are not an investigative agency,” Isaacs said.
Madsen faces up to 27 years in prison if convicted, Jenkins said. He is being held in County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
A Superior Court arraignment is scheduled July 11.
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