Transient Arrested in Rape of Schoolgirl, 11 : Crime: Man, arrested in October in another case, is also charged with trying to lure away five other girls.

A suspect in the rape of an 11-year-old near her South-Central Los Angeles school is in custody, charged with that attack and attempting to lure at least five other children from near the school in June, authorities said Monday.

The suspect, known to investigators as the Bret Harte rapist because all of the incidents occurred near Bret Harte Preparatory Intermediate School, was identified as Levon Todd, a 37-year-old transient.

Angered over the rape, the City Council last summer authorized a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. However, police officials said the arrest did not result from information from a specific tipster.

Todd was arrested in October as a suspect in an unrelated sexual attack upon a woman and was implicated in the other crimes through traditional police work, said Ike Withers, supervisor of detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division.

During questioning in that case, according to Withers, Detective Jackie Cohee noticed that Todd physically resembled descriptions of the Bret Harte rapist and reportedly had a similar method of operation.

Withers said the detective showed pictures of the suspect to the 11-year-old victim and other children who had reported that a man had tried to lure them away as they walked near the school, which is at 93rd Street and Hoover Avenue. Todd was formally charged last week with kidnaping, rape and sodomy in the case involving the 11-year-old and five counts of child annoyance involving other children.

In all of the annoyance cases, said Withers, a man approached a girl, showed her a wad of currency and offered her money to accompany him. All of the girls refused and were unharmed, he said.

In the case of the 11-year-old, he said, the man pulled a gun on her about 50 feet from the school’s gate and forced her into a nearby vacant house, where she was assaulted.