Nude Man Attempts to Rape Car Accident Victim

A nude man tried to rape a woman trapped in her car along a freeway in Bellflower early Saturday before a passerby summoned Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to the scene, authorities said.

The victim, 22, from Buena Park, was able to keep her attacker at bay with an umbrella and did not appear to be seriously hurt, the Sheriff’s Department said. She refused medical attention at the scene.

Mark Harp, 24, of Bellflower was arrested along the Artesia Freeway without struggle and was being held on $30,000 bail on suspicion of attempted rape, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The suspect already faced a misdemeanor sexual battery charge stemming from a July 17 incident in Lakewood in which he allegedly pulled down the pants of a woman who was pushing her toddler down the street in a stroller, said Deputy Benita Hinojos of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. Neither the mother nor the child was hurt, authorities said.

Saturday’s incident began about 1:45 a.m. on the eastbound Artesia Freeway in Bellflower when the woman lost control of her compact car, and the vehicle landed on its side in ivy along the freeway near Lakewood Boulevard.

Hinojos said the suspect apparently disrobed along the freeway after seeing the accident and got in the disabled vehicle with the woman while she was strapped in her seat belt.

“The victim said he tried to take her clothes off, and he tried to rape her,” Hinojos said. But she fought the man off with an umbrella until the motorist came to the victim’s aid, the deputy said.