Rathbun May Face Sex Charges : Slaying: If they are added to the count of murdering model Linda Sobek, prosecutors could seek the death penalty.

While his links to unsolved crimes in other states remain unclear, murder suspect Charles E. Rathbun may face new sexual assault charges in Los Angeles County, including one that could result in prosecutors seeking the death penalty, it was learned Friday.

Sources said the new charges being weighed by law enforcement authorities include an apparent sexual assault on model Linda Sobek, whom Rathbun is charged with murdering, and an alleged rape involving a former roommate of the 38-year-old photographer from Hollywood, who remains in custody at the Men’s Central Jail. A charge of sexual assault involving Sobek, 27, of Hermosa Beach, could elevate Rathbun’s first-degree murder charge to a capital case.

In addition, sources said, authorities are investigating other allegations of sex crimes by Rathbun. “There are things that [the public] is not aware of,” one source close to the investigation said Friday.

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Whether those allegations will result in charges is unclear, that source and others said. To date, Rathbun has been named a suspect in one other local case--the 1992 murder of model Kimberly Pandelios, whose remains were recovered in the Angeles National Forest not far from where Sobek’s body was found Nov. 24.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Kay, who is prosecuting the Sobek murder case, refused Friday to discuss the possibility of new charges other than to say a decision will be made before Rathbun’s next court appearance on Jan. 5. Rathbun has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sobek.

Rathbun’s defense attorney declined to talk about the likelihood that his client will face more charges. “We’re in a wait-and-see mode,” said lawyer Mark Werksman.

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Investigators in other cities where Rathbun is known to have traveled or lived continue to investigate whether he might be involved in several unsolved homicides and disappearances. They pointed out, however, that Rathbun is not now considered a suspect in any of the cases.

In Romulus, Mich., on the outskirts of Detroit, investigators said Friday that they have cleared Rathbun in the 1990 sexual assault and murder of a Northwest Airlines flight attendant. “We have cleared him by the serology evidence sent to us by the L.A. County sheriff’s office,” said Det. Dan Snyder.

In Livingston County, Mich., authorities are trying to determine if Rathbun was in the area on two occasions when young women vanished. Christine O’Brien, 24, of Tyrone Township disappeared July 18 this year. Paige Marie Renkowski, 30, from a suburb of Lansing, disappeared May 24, 1990.

Rathbun “is just someone we know had connections to Michigan and was in and out, as best we can tell, on many occasions,” said Livingston County Sheriff’s Det. Al Steinaway.

In Santa Barbara, Police Capt. Greg Stock said homicide investigators continue to look at Rathbun in connection with the 1985 murder of Kym Morgan, although they have not uncovered anything to link Rathbun to the slaying of the 24-year-old photography student and part-time model, whose body was recovered in Los Padres National Forest five days after her disappearance.

Meanwhile, court records show that Rathbun was cited by the California Highway Patrol in January 1992 for shooting professional photos without a permit on a dirt road in the woods near Antelope Valley. The citation was issued one month before Pandelios vanished in the nearby Angeles National Forest.

Model Jill Swanson, 27, was photographed posing next to a customized pickup truck in that 1992 session with Rathbun and contacted Hermosa Beach police when she learned that he was taken into custody. Swanson and her husband, Rick, who had escorted her to the shoot, took sheriff’s detectives to the location during the November search for Sobek’s body.

Rathbun was fined $1,370 and received one year’s probation for the misdemeanor.