Police Attribute Attack on Girl to Valley Molester

Police Wednesday night announced another attack attributed to a man blamed for the rape or molestations of about two dozen San Fernando Valley schoolchildren, a string of crimes that earlier set off protests from parents that they were not adequately warned that their children were in danger from a serial molester.

An 11-year-old girl successfully fought off the molester, who attacked her at Hazeltine Avenue and Gilmore Street about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, police Cmdr. David Gascon told a news conference at Parker Center, Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.

Gascon said the elementary student was on her way to Van Nuys School when she realized that she forgot something at home and turned around to return for it.

“She found herself being followed by someone who (she realized) answered the description of the molestation suspect, who followed her for 1 1/2 blocks to her house,” Gascon said.

“She ran into the house, retrieved the item and came back out,” believing that the man had gone away, Gascon said. “She returned to go to school and the guy suddenly reappeared,” and grabbed her, but the girl was able to break loose, Gascon said.

Gascon said the assailant might have released the girl because he saw two women approaching them.

The girl did not immediately report the incident to the school, but instead told a friend, he said. It was not until late in the afternoon that the girl reported the attack to school officials, Gascon said.

Valley parents attended a mass meeting Nov. 19, protesting that police and school officials failed to warn them to take extra measures to safeguard their children.

Police responded that detectives did not connect 22 molestations near Valley schools until Nov. 3, when a 9-year-old Fullbright Avenue School student was raped and an 11-year-old middle school student was molested just four blocks away.

Suspicion that some of the incidents, which date back to February, might be related arose as early as June. But because there was no obvious pattern in the victims--which include boys and girls, children and adults--there was no immediate indication that the attacks were the work of the same man, police said.

Additionally, many of the victims gave police conflicting descriptions of the attacker, leading investigators to suspect that there could be more than one molester at work.

It was not until after the two attacks Nov. 3 that police became fairly certain that a single man was responsible for as many as 26 molestations, investigators said.

Detective Robert Peloquin, a West Valley sex crimes investigator, guessed that the man police were looking for was a “sneaky” and “driven” person who moves around a lot.

Peloquin also said the man wears different clothes during the attacks and sets up different escape routes.

Only two witnesses have been able to offer even the sketchiest of descriptions of the man or the vehicle he drove, Peloquin said.

Police said Wednesday’s attack was the first since Nov. 11 when two assaults were reported, on a 21-year-old baby-sitter and a 14-year-old girl waiting for a bus.

Parents of young children throughout the Valley have sharply criticized police, both for failing to make the connection earlier and for waiting too long to notify them.

Police went public with their investigation Nov. 15--about two weeks after they had connected many of the attacks. Investigators said they wanted to concentrate on trapping the molester.

Protests over the delay, which some parents said unnecessarily exposed their children to danger, led to a Nov. 19 meeting with police and school officials at Sutter Middle School attended by about 150 parents. Some parents blasted what they said was a mishandling of the case by both the Los Angeles Unified School District police, which took reports on several of the attacks, Los Angeles police and school officials.

“Why did it take my principal two weeks to notify my parents?” yelled Christine Disimile.

Deputy Chief John Moran, acting commander of the Valley’s five police divisions, has conceded that human error and poor communication between the divisions may have hampered police in identifying the pattern of sexual attacks earlier.