Man Sent to Prison for 34 Years in Rape

A 47-year-old transient was sentenced to 34 years in prison Monday for raping a North Hollywood teen-ager in 1980.

Frank Comstock, who had been the subject of a 10-year FBI search, received the maximum sentence from Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Leon Kaplan for his conviction last month on two counts of rape and two counts of forced oral copulation.

Comstock was arrested in August by FBI agents who had been tipped to his location in Des Moines, Iowa, by an anonymous source.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Acaldo said the agents found a “Wanted” poster with Comstock’s photograph on it in a gym bag he was carrying. She said Comstock told the agents that he had seen it in a post office and tore it down.

Acaldo said an arrest warrant had been issued for Comstock in 1980, charging him with raping three women hitchhikers he picked up on separate occasions in the San Fernando Valley and took to a North Hollywood trailer park where the assaults occurred.

But Comstock fled before his arrest and was not captured until last year. In the meantime, one of the alleged victims died. Prosecutors charged him with nine counts involving assaults on the remaining two victims, who were both 17 at the time of attacks.

A jury convicted Comstock May 28 of four counts involving one of the women but could not decide on a verdict involving the other. Kaplan dismissed the remaining five charges at the sentencing Monday.