Hired by Victim Through State Jobs Program : Parolee Sentenced in Sex Assault

A paroled rapist was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a 60-year-old Sylmar woman who hired him through a state employment program to work at her home.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major imposed the sentence on David Peter Madsen, 29, who pleaded guilty last month to charges of forcible rape and oral copulation in the June 10 attack.

Madsen, who was paroled in March for an earlier rape conviction and lived at a halfway house in Sylmar, was sent to the woman’s home as a day laborer by the state Employment Development Department.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron L. Jenkins said the victim used the day-labor program several times before without problems and assumed Madsen was screened.

“She was shocked to find out he was a paroled rapist,” Jenkins said. “She expected these people to be screened and they weren’t.”

The state agency does not screen applicants for the day labor program for criminal records “because we are forbidden by law to do so,” department spokeswoman Valerie Reynoso said.

Also User of Drugs

According to Madsen’s probation report, he uses drugs, including cocaine, LSD, marijuana and PCP “whenever he is out of prison or jail.”

Marshall Lundsberg, deputy regional administrator for the parole division of the state Department of Corrections in Los Angeles, said Madsen’s earlier conviction led to his classification as a “high-control case,” meaning he had to meet weekly with a parole officer. He also registered with the police as a sex offender and was monitored through an outpatient clinic, Lundsberg said.

Madsen was cooperative and met his parole requirements faithfully until the day of the attack, Lundsberg said. “There was nothing that tipped us off.”

Although the Department of Corrections refers parolees to the Employment Development Deparment for jobs, there is no formal agreement between the two state agencies, he said.

“We don’t have a contract with them, but our parolees are eligible for day labor . . . as any citizen is,” Lundsberg said.