LOS ANGELES : 40 New Charges Filed Against Serial Rape Suspect

Forty additional charges were filed Thursday against a security guard who allegedly abducted women from outside trendy restaurants and sexually assaulted them.

The total number of alleged victims of Sean Patrick Mitchell, 33, now stands at 16 and at least two more could be added, Deputy Dist. Atty. Beatriz Donoghue said.

The defendant, who is being held without bail, was initially charged with assaulting a dozen women over a four-week period ending in June.

He pleaded not guilty to 90 counts of kidnaping for robbery, kidnaping for sexual purposes, attempted kidnaping for robbery, attempted kidnaping for sexual purposes, second-degree robbery, forcible oral copulation, forcible rape, sodomy and attempted sodomy. The new charges are similar, Donoghue said.

Mitchell, who runs his own security company, was purportedly off-duty at the time of the alleged attacks.

He allegedly used a 9-millimeter handgun while abducting the women as they left upscale restaurants and other nightspots in Hollywood, West Hollywood and the Wilshire district. He generally approached women in their 20s as they were either getting into their cars or already in them, Donoghue said.

Mitchell, who was arrested June 8, allegedly kidnaped some of his victims in pairs. He would lock one in another room while raping the other, police said.