Prostitutes Are Prime Victims in Leading Rape Area

Tucked away by the railroad tracks near Sepulveda Boulevard is a bleak Van Nuys neighborhood where bravely tended bungalows are surrounded by aging apartments and industrial parks, check-cashing outlets, motels and other signposts of transiency and quick-hit crimes.

At night its dead-end streets come alive with sex--perfunctory acts performed by prostitutes who walk Sepulveda and, to a lesser degree, Van Nuys Boulevard. Los Angeles police say that may be why Reporting District 936 had more reported rapes last year than any other area of the city--because it rests between two corridors of drug-dealing and prostitution, and prostitutes are prime targets for rape.

“I’ve been raped twice in 12 years,” Mary, 33, said between tricks on a recent night on Sepulveda. “We all try to take precautions,” she said, adding that she carries a knife for protection.

“There are some people out there that don’t like women, period, and use prostitutes as a real up-front, easy-to-identify example of their hatred,” said Detective Craig Rhudy of the Van Nuys Division, a veteran sex crimes investigator at the police station responsible for Reporting District 936.

Crime statistics for 1993 show that 14 rapes were reported in the district, which has an area of less than two square miles.

The next-highest figure was 11 reported rapes in a nearby district in Panorama City, as well as parts of south and central Los Angeles. Police and prosecutors said the difference in rape reports between those reporting districts and Reporting District 936 is small enough to be arbitrary but is probably because of the high concentration of prostitutes and the dark industrial streets in the district and nearby neighborhoods.

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According to a recently released crime analysis report prepared by the Van Nuys Division, 16% of the patrol area’s reported rapes involved prostitutes who were working when attacked.

Rhudy and other police officers said some rape reports filed by prostitutes turn out to be false claims against men who don’t pay, including drug dealers who offer quick hits of heroin and crack cocaine in exchange for sex, then renege on their promises.

But Mary and other prostitutes interviewed Friday night said they had never filed a false report despite frequent disputes over money. Mary said her most recent rape occurred after the john had paid her and then tried to take back his money while she was in his car.

“I threw it out of the car,” she said when he grabbed for the money. She jumped out. He followed and raped her.

Another woman, who identified herself only as Vanessa, was a newcomer to Sepulveda Boulevard, having arrived from Sacramento two months ago.

“I’ve never been raped, but it’s true prostitutes have been the ones raped out here,” said Vanessa, 24. Despite her short time on the boulevard, she has been threatened at knifepoint by a man who refused to pay. He finally just let her leave the car unharmed--and unpaid.

“I’m not going to do this all my life,” she said.

A substantial number of the reports filed by prostitutes turn out to be true, and although most rapes involve victims who know their attackers, prostitutes have proved to be a particularly vulnerable group, according to prosecutors who specialize in crimes against women.

And experts widely believe that up to half the rapes of women are not reported.

“My experience working Downtown is that prostitutes really get raped a lot,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lydia Bodin, who supervises her office’s domestic violence unit. “I think the attitude about prostitutes is they are viewed as throw-away human beings.”

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Because they are readily accessible and not expected to wield much clout with police or a jury, streetwalkers are easy targets, said Detective Mike Buttitta, who is assigned to LAPD’s special rape detail.

Buttitta cited a case coming up for trial May 19 in which two longshoremen from the Harbor-Long Beach area are accused of raping and otherwise brutalizing prostitutes so viciously that one of their alleged victims--who was raped and beaten with a golf club--nearly lost an eye.

Authorities say the woman was picked up last summer by the pair of friends posing as “johns,” then driven to one of their homes, where she was attacked. Finally, she was thrown naked from their car--the pair’s alleged signature. They stand accused of doing the same thing to at least two other victims, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Villa said.

“These are people who are very aggressive. They’re power rapists and they want to physically abuse these women,” said Villa, who is handling the case.

“It’s kind of like they choose this particular type of woman because of what she is, because they think they can get away with more with them,” Villa said, noting that serial rapists sometimes escalate in brutality until someone is killed.

Not all prosecutors agree. Van Nuys-based Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Rabichow said he believes the drug dealing along the Sepulveda corridor fosters other types of crimes, such as robbery, and in turn could lead to rapes of opportunity. Drug dealing also attracts people more likely to commit crimes of any kind, Rabichow said.

“I actually don’t think that prostitution itself causes or increases rape,” he said.

Most often, experts say, rape involves victims who know their attackers and takes place within the purported safety of the woman’s home or neighborhood.

Domestic violence may be a universal problem, but what distinguishes Reporting District 936 from other neighborhoods is its high concentration of streetwalkers.

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Prostitution has been such a continuing bane for neighbors that last winter some began marching up and down Sepulveda with signs saying, “Johns Go Home” and “Prostitutes: We Don’t Want You Here.” The effort seemed to have had some effect before it was sidetracked by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, said Officer Jean Green, who works with the area’s residents for the department’s community-policing program.

Police appeared to be targeting the area Friday night, with black-and-white patrol cars and unmarked cars outnumbering the prostitutes cruising Sepulveda. The handful of streetwalkers, including Mary and Vanessa, spoke quickly and nervously as they darted in and out of brightly lit gas stations and dark alleys, trying to attract clients but avoid police.

Green said the neighborhood’s extensive industrial stretches--which she described as a dimly lighted “ghost town” at night--make “a good breeding ground for rape” regardless of whether the victims are prostitutes. Several bars feature nude dancing, Green said, suggesting that the nearby dark streets may prove too tempting for some drunk bar patrons leaving with an escort.

“Drunk men do weird things,” Green said.

But any john is a potential danger, drunk or sober, the prostitutes say.

“If you don’t get your money first,” Vanessa said, “they can do anything.”