Man Charged With Raping Jogger Is a Probation Officer

A Pasadena man charged with raping a female jogger in Santa Monica last fall has been identified as a probation officer at a camp for juvenile offenders in the Santa Monica Mountains, police said Friday.

Ernest Pettway, 37, pleaded not guilty Friday in Santa Monica Municipal Court to five felony counts for the alleged rape of a 55-year-old woman at gunpoint on Montana Avenue in November.

Pettway, who is being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail, did not speak during the arraignment. Family members who attended the hearing declined to comment.

Pettway’s attorney, Edward Pacheco, insisted that Pettway is innocent.

An 11-year veteran with the county Probation Department, Pettway spent the last four years working as a deputy probation officer at Camp David Gonzales, a facility in the mountains between Malibu and Calabasas that is home to about 120 juvenile offenders.

A Probation Department official said the department intends to suspend Pettway without pay.

Pettway was arrested in November, nine days after the rape, but he was released shortly after because of insufficient evidence.

Police rearrested Pettway after blood tests--taken during his initial arrest last fall--linked him to the crime.