Covina Residents Protest Plan to Parole Rapist to Their Community

Carrying picket signs and lighting their way with candles, more than 3,000 Covina residents rallied Monday to protest the scheduled parole of a convicted rapist into their community Dec. 4.

Covina Police Chief John Lentz said state officials told him last week that Reginald Donald Muldrew, 46, suspected of more than 200 sexual attacks in Los Angeles during the 1970s, would be paroled into the San Gabriel Valley suburb.

Muldrew--dubbed the Pillowcase Rapist because he covered his victims’ faces with pillowcases, blouses or scarves--is scheduled to be released from Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City in December, said California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Christine May.

Muldrew was convicted in 1978 of four counts of rape with force, two counts of oral copulation with a child, one count of assault and several counts of burglary and robbery, May said.

However, Muldrew also was a suspect in more than 200 sexual assaults in which the victims had pillowcases placed over their heads, as well as 150 burglaries from 1975 until his arrest in 1978. He has served time in several state prisons, including San Quentin, where he was a suspect in the 1971 murder of a prison guard but was not prosecuted.

Covina City Councilman Tom Falls said Muldrew committed 18 rapes in the four months before his arrest, and his victims ranged in age from 12 to 69.

May would not confirm that Muldrew would be paroled in Covina but said he probably will be paroled in Southern California if he passes a psychiatric exam.

In a speech at Monday’s rally, Chief Lentz told the crowd that the city is checking to see whether any of Muldrew’s victims now live near the community. Authorities have said that Muldrew’s victims lived Compton, Southwest Los Angeles, the South Bay and the Wilshire district.

By state law, a rapist cannot be paroled within 35 miles of any of his victims, Lentz said.

“We’re going to fight to keep him out of our town,” Lentz said. “Personally I don’t want him released at all.”