Location of Rapist’s Victims May Prevent Parole to Covina : Crime: Reginald Muldrew was convicted of raping two women who live within 35 miles of the city, police say.

Continuing their attempt to prevent a notorious rapist from being paroled to their community, Covina police said Wednesday they have found two victims of “pillowcase rapist” Reginald Donald Muldrew living within 35 miles of the San Gabriel Valley suburb.

The state Penal Code says an inmate cannot be paroled to a community within 35 miles of a victim or witness to his felonies.

As a result of the findings, “we feel very confident” that Muldrew “will not be released to our city,” Police Chief John Lentz said.

Steve Goya, a deputy regional parole administrator, said the state parole board will need to confirm the identities of the women cited by Covina police.

Lentz said state officials informed him last week that Muldrew, 46--a suspect in more than 200 sexual assaults and 150 burglaries in Los Angeles from 1975 until his arrest in 1978--would be paroled into the city Dec. 4.

Since then, residents and city officials have been fighting to stop him from being paroled to the tightly knit community.

The two women who came to police over the past few days are victims of rapes for which Muldrew was convicted, said Covina Police Lt. Kim Raney.

Before police knew his identity, Muldrew was dubbed the “pillowcase rapist” because he covered his victims’ faces with pillowcases, blouses or scarves.

Covina police said they have been contacted by 15 other women who say they were victims of Muldrew, and have matched their names with a Los Angeles Police Department list of cases in which Muldrew was suspected but not prosecuted. Raney would not say where the victims live, except to say that the closest lives 12 miles from Covina.

Goya would not comment on whether the Penal Code restricts a parolee from living within 35 miles of a victim in such cases.

Raney said police are going through the process of verifying all 17 women’s addresses and helping them fill out written statements protesting Muldrew’s parole to the parole board.

Muldrew, convicted in 1978 of four counts of rape with force, two counts of oral copulation with a child, one count of assault with intent to commit rape and several counts of burglary and robbery, is confined at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California. Officials plan to administer a psychiatric examination on the day he is paroled, even though he has no history of mental illness. If he fails the exam, he could be sent back to prison for another year.

A rally in Covina to protest Muldrew’s parole drew more than 3,000 people Monday night, some carrying signs that read “Where’s Bobbitt When We Need Her?” and “Don’t Drop a Serial Rapist Here.”

Raney said most of the women who came forward did so after media coverage of the rally. Muldrew has served time in several prisons, including San Quentin, where he was a suspect in the 1971 murder of a prison guard but was not prosecuted.

Raney said he doubted that the Department of Corrections could parole Muldrew in Los Angeles County because of the multitude of victims. “We are not just looking to keep him out of Covina,” said Covina Councilman Thomas Falls. “We think there are enough victims to keep him out of the county.”

Times correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.