Rape Suspect Faces 37 Felony Charges in 4 Abductions

Authorities brought 37 felony charges Monday against a Woodland Hills man arrested last week on suspicion of abducting and raping or sexually molesting four women and girls, the youngest only 10.

Howard August Davis, the 29-year-old son of a Beverly Hills police officer, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Van Nuys Municipal Court. He was being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail at the Los Angeles police station in Van Nuys, but prosecutors planned to ask a judge to raise the figure to $2 million.

In a criminal complaint filed Monday by the district attorney’s office, Davis was charged with kidnaping for sexual purposes, rape, forcible oral copulation, sodomy, digital penetration and child molestation.

The first three victims--two 18, another 17--were abducted at knifepoint and raped in isolated locations, either in the Santa Monica Mountains or in darkened alleys, investigators said.

The fourth person attacked, a 10-year-old girl who was walking to her home with groceries for her family, was threatened with a stun gun, according to Detective F. Jay Romaine of the Los Angeles Police Department. She was sexually molested but not raped.

All of the victims were dropped off after the attacks at locations miles from where they were abducted.

Davis beat his victims--”in some cases, depending on resistance”--but he did not stab any of the three teens, nor did he use the stun gun on the 10-year-old, according to Romaine.

Police arrested Davis without incident near the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Sale Avenue on Friday night, two days after investigators realized a serial rapist was attacking young females in the west San Fernando Valley.

“It is amazingly good police work for them to arrest a suspect in this case so quickly based on the information they had,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin L. Herscovitz, who filed the charges. Romaine credited the arrest to “basic, good police work, and some luck.”

Refusing to provide specifics, Romaine said Davis was apprehended by West Valley police officers who had a composite drawing of the rapist and were looking for a small, light-colored pickup truck used to abduct all four victims.

“He looked a lot like the composite,” Romaine said, adding that at least one of the victims has since identified Davis in a photo lineup. Police said Davis was wearing “distinctive” clothing when he was arrested, and they recovered the four-inch knife believed used in the first three attacks.

Though Davis was arrested on Ventura Boulevard, Romaine said none of the crimes occurred on that busy thoroughfare. Contradicting statements that officials made over the weekend, Romaine said Davis is not the subject of a flyer circulated along Ventura Boulevard which seeks help solving several rapes.

Police said Davis is a suspect, however, in several other rapes during late April and May. “There’s some differences, and there’s some similarities, too,” Romaine said.

Citing the continuing investigation, Romaine refused to provide certain details about the attacks. Other than saying the crimes did not occur along Ventura Boulevard, the investigator provided no location other than the West Valley.

The first woman was kidnaped after she pulled into a “well-lighted spot”--a business that was not open at 2:30 a.m. on May 1, Romaine said. The 18-year-old had been followed from her job, and when she stopped her car, Davis allegedly smashed her window and dragged her out of the vehicle. She was raped after being driven to two secluded locations in the Santa Monica Mountains in an incident that lasted several hours, Romaine said.

The second and third attacks, on May 3 and May 23, involved pedestrians who were kidnaped by a motorist who asked them for directions, authorities said. Both victims were taken to darkened allies and attacked. The third victim was grabbed off the sidewalk by the assailant, prompting her to scream. “There are people who hear her, but they’re too late to do anything about it,” Romaine said.

The 10-year-old was also asked for directions before the man “exits the vehicle and drags her into it,” Romaine said. She was taken into the mountains and molested before being dropped off in a residential location, where the “petrified” girl sought help at a home, he said.

“You know, with these kinds of cases, it’s not always what’s visible, it’s the psychological” damage that can do the most harm in a sexual assault case, Romaine said.

On Monday, a relative who wished to remain anonymous said Davis had a troubled childhood.

“I am not defending him, the circumstances of his life are just sad,” the family member said.

The relative, who had seen Davis only two or three times during the past three years, said the family found out about the charges from a newspaper report.

Davis had lived off-and-on with his parents--Howard Davis Sr., a Beverly Hills police officer, and Shirley Davis, who was recently hospitalized with emphysema, the relative said.