NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Man Who Allegedly Posed as Officer Charged in Rapes

A 65-year-old film technician who allegedly posed as a Los Angeles police officer was charged Thursday with multiple counts of sexual assault after two victims identified him from mug shots, authorities said.

Weldon Norman of Covina was charged with kidnaping, rape and impersonating a police officer, among other crimes, said Phil Rabichow, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

Norman was charged in two assaults that took place June 29 and July 1 near a bus bench in front of a shopping center at Victory Boulevard and Vineland Avenue, said LAPD Detective Mike Coffey.

Norman wore a blue police jacket and carried a badge, a holstered handgun, handcuffs and a police flashlight and allegedly told his victims, young Latina women, that he was investigating their legal status in the United States, Coffey said.

Investigators identified Norman through DMV records when the first victim saw him near the bus bench the day after she was abducted and took down his license plate number, Coffey said.

Both assaults took place around 6 a.m.

Norman, who used the alias Mark Weldon, was arrested Tuesday when police served search and arrest warrants at his home, Coffey said.

The first case was turned over to robbery detectives as a kidnaping because the victim told police that the man drove her around for a time before dropping her off. In the second assault, the victim said the man told her an identical story, and identified himself as a police officer before he drove her to an unknown location and assaulted her, Coffey said.