Deputies Describe 2-Month Sexual Assault Spree in Juvenile Court

He is accused of terrorizing a neighborhood for two solid months: pedaling through Newbury Park on a small chrome dirt bike and wearing a black ski mask as he grabbed joggers, sexually assaulted a teenage boy on a high school campus and raped a woman in the high school bathroom.

Those details emerged this week in a juvenile court hearing as investigators laid the blame for the alleged crime spree on an 18-year-old Newbury Park man, who now faces 21 charges including rape, sexual battery and assault.

In all, there were five attacks, deputies testified. Two allegedly took place on the campus of Newbury Park High School after school hours.

“It is very rare that there is a multiple offender,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Schmidt, who prosecutes juvenile sex crimes. “Most of the juveniles who commit sex crimes, they do not have access to much of anyone.”

But in this case, the teenager allegedly sought out victims in a bold and violent manner that escalated with each assault. All of the attacks were executed in public areas while other people were around, authorities said.

The two assaults on the high school campus occurred while students and teachers were nearby, according to court testimony.

Judge Charles R. McGrath is expected to decide at the end of the hearing next week whether the teen, who was 17 at the time of the alleged attacks, should face charges as an adult, which could bring more serious penalties.

The teen is not being named because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged offenses.

Deputy Public Defender James Harmon, who is representing the teenager, said the identity of the masked perpetrator would be an issue as the case unfolds. “We haven’t done more than scratch the surface,” he said of the first two days of testimony. “I am not in a position to comment at this point; there’s lots of witnesses left to go.”

On Thursday and Friday, Det. Kent Adlof of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department testified about his investigation into the string of assaults, which occurred during a 10-week period between Sept. 3 and Nov. 11, 1996.

The attacks all occurred within a quarter-mile of each other in a residential area of Newbury Park, he told McGrath.

They all involved a young assailant, described by witnesses and victims as between 16 and 20, who wore a black ski mask and rode a small chrome dirt bike, Adlof testified.

In addition, the victims all identified their attacker by his “strikingly” blue eyes and pale pink skin, Adlof said.

The 18-year-old charged with the crimes was arrested by authorities who said he matched a composite drawing of the assailant. He was later picked out of a photo lineup.

The teen, who appeared in court dressed in a blue sweatshirt, showed no emotion as Adlof went on to describe the crimes authorities say he committed.

On Sept. 3, deputies said, he followed a young woman walking to a shopping center at the corner of Orchard and Reino roads, where he grabbed her and pinned her to the wall of an abandoned bank building.

He then sexually assaulted her, but was scared away by someone who saw the attack, Adlof said.

A week later, authorities say, the teen followed and attacked a jogger running at night near Borchard Park. When the woman tried to run away, he sped up on his bike and rammed into her, Adlof said.

Also in that case, a witness heard the woman’s cries and yelled, scaring the attacker away, he said.

The third attack happened three nights later when a jogger was tackled by a masked assailant into the bushes along Reino Road. The attacker started to molest the woman, but was frightened away by approaching car headlights.

The victim, furious and armed with pepper spray, followed her assailant and even stepped into traffic to get help, but the attacker got away.

On Oct. 26, a 14-year-old boy attending a Saturday class at Newbury Park High School was sexually assaulted during a recess.

The boy was talking on a pay phone when an older teenager grabbed him, threw him onto a grassy area and took his wallet. The attacker then pulled down the 14-year-old’s pants and attempted to sodomize him twice, Adlof said.

The boy was able to scare his attacker away by warning him that class was about to begin and school officials would notice him missing, the detective said.

The fifth sexual assault--and the most serious--occurred on Nov. 5 when a female student taking night classes at Newbury Park High was raped in the stall of a school bathroom.

“She opens the stall door and right in front of her is the subject with a ski mask,” Adlof testified Friday. “The subject said to her, ‘Be quiet or I’ll kill you. I am going to rape you.’ ”

The girl thought it was a practical joke, Adlof said, at which point her attacker pulled down his pants and came after her with a knife.

“She complied because she feared for her life,” the detective testified.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Frawley plans to call at least four more witnesses in the case. The hearing is expected to conclude next week.