Mass-Rape Suspect Faces 30 More Charges, Up to 220 Years in Prison

Prosecutors filed 30 additional rape and burglary-related charges Friday against accused serial rapist Robin Scott Dasenbrock and doubled the number of alleged victims to 14 women.

“It is definitely the most massive rape case I’ve ever seen,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael C. Koski.”

But defense attorney Martin R. Kossak, admitting that he has not reviewed all of the charges, said his client is being blamed for “unresolved” rape cases that police have been working on during the past two years.

Orange County Municipal Judge Dan C. Dutcher postponed Dasenbrock’s arraignment until June 19 after Koski added the new charges, bringing the total number of criminal acts alleged in the case to 45. They include rape, assault with intent to commit rape, oral copulation, sodomy, burglary and prowling.

Ready to Plead Innocent

Kossak said his client was ready to enter a not guilty plea Friday and will do so June 19, but he did not reveal how the defense will challenge the prosecution’s case. He said trial preparation probably will take a year.

Some of the charges involve multiple crimes against one or more of the victims.

Koski said that one woman was raped twice and that eight women were raped and then forced into other sexual acts including sodomy and oral copulation. A total of five assaults with intent to commit rape also are among the charges, Koski said.

The 22-year-old Dasenbrock faces a maximum sentence of 220 years in state prison, the prosecutor said. He is being held at the Orange County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Most of the new charges filed Friday are similar to those filed on May 1, Koski said. One new charge, assault with a deadly weapon, allegedly involves an incident where a man tried to detain Dasenbrock while he was “prowling” around an apartment building, Koski said.

Another new charge involves rape with a foreign object that Koski declined to identify.

Koski said he did not believe any more charges will be filed.

“Police have pretty well investigated this case,” he said. “But I wouldn’t rule it out. There is still some evidence they still need to look at even though they’ve done a thorough job.”

Koski said the charges involve use of a knife on 12 occasions and that police believed during the hunt for a suspect that the rapist was becoming more violent.

The first charges filed against Dasenbrock on May 1 were based on fingerprints left in the homes of his alleged victims, Koski said. The 30 counts filed Friday were based mostly on fingerprints and eyewitness identifications, he said.

According to police, the series of attacks on women in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley began in November, 1985.

Entered Through Windows

Typically, police said, the attacker would enter ground-floor apartments through unlocked windows and assault women as they slept.

Dasenbrock was arrested April 29 after a police dog on patrol with a Fountain Valley police officer spotted him hiding in the bushes about 500 yards from the apartment where a 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped two days earlier. The arrest occurred across the street from another apartment complex where Dasenbrock listed his address.

Cameras and TV crews were not allowed to take pictures of Dasenbrock in court Friday because police have not completed a photo lineup, Koski said.