Brea : High School Student Arrested in Rape Case

Police have arrested a 16-year-old Esperanza High School student on suspicion of raping one girl and attempting to rape two girls who were attacked as they walked along a horse trail.

Police Detective Douglas Dickerson said Thursday that authorities are seeking to prosecute the youth as an adult “due to his age, the seriousness of the offense and the pattern of the offenses, the fact that it’s not one isolated incident.” The boy, who has been charged with forcible rape, forcible sodomy and attempted rape, will appear today in Juvenile Court in Orange.

Dickerson said the first attack occurred at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 23 when the girls, ages 10 and 9, were walking their bicycles along the horse trail between Fairmont and Yorba Linda boulevards, just behind Bernardo Yorba Junior High School. A youth tried to rape the older girl, then fled when her friend ran for help, Dickerson said.

The second attack occurred at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when a 14-year-old girl walking along the trail was raped and sodomized.

The suspect was arrested at his high school Wednesday afternoon. Dickerson said no additional information could be released about him because of his age. One other girl was attacked on the same path 18 months ago but Dickerson declined comment on whether that attack was related to the recent ones.