Suspect Held in Anaheim Serial Rape Case

A man who allegedly raped two women and tried to assault at least three others at knifepoint over the last year has been arrested by Anaheim police, officials said Thursday.

Police described the case as one of their biggest serial rape investigations in years and said the department is still trying to determine whether there are other victims.

Investigators accuse Ala Jiries Hassan, 22, of cruising the streets of west Anaheim late at night, luring women into his car and pulling out a knife. Police allege that Hassan drove his victims to dark alleys before attacking them.

In one case, a woman was slashed and struck on the head by an attacker she met at a billiard hall.

“It appears his level of violence was escalating,” said police Sgt. Joe Vargas. “Had he not been arrested, we’re sure the pattern would’ve continued.”

Prosecutors on Thursday filed rape and kidnapping charges against Hassan in a January rape and expect charges to be filed soon in the other cases.

The arrest comes as the number of reported rapes in Orange County has risen slightly in recent years, even as nearly every other major crime has sharply declined. Reported rapes in the county rose 1% from 1993 to 1997. By contrast, total violent crime fell 17% during that time and homicides dropped 48%, according to FBI reports.

Anaheim has seen a 23% drop in violent crime since 1993. The number of sexual assault cases fell significantly in the early 1990s. But since 1993, the number has remained steady. FBI statistics for 1998 show 71 reported rapes in Anaheim.

Detectives were investigating one rape case when the Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported two similar cases in the area.

In the January case, a woman was waiting for a bus at the corner of Beach Boulevard and Ball Road when a man approached her in his car. After she refused to get in, the man allegedly pulled a knife and forced her in, then drove her to an alley to rape her.

In the other four cases, women were walking on the street alone at night and were persuaded to get into a man’s car, police say.

Sgt. Bob Conklin, head of Anaheim’s sex-crimes division, reminded women to follow common-sense precautions, such as not walking at night alone.

“If you can cut down on your exposure a little bit, you can be safer,” Conklin said. “It’s a tough one, because . . . a woman should be able to get on a bus in the middle of the night and go to work without having to worry about having someone accosting her. It’s a shame we have to take precautions, but that’s the real world.”