Lancaster Man Sentenced to Life for Sexual Assaults

A Lancaster construction worker was sentenced to 181 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting six women in the Antelope Valley.

Glenn Bernard Hilke, 38, who had previously served time in prison for rape, was convicted last month of 10 counts, including sodomy by force, kidnapping, robbery and other sexual assault charges.

“He’s one sick, dangerous person,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John Portillo said. “It’s good he’ll never be in a position to do this again.” Because the conviction is Hilke’s third strike, he will not be eligible for parole.

Hilke was arrested in October 1998 after a victim reported she had accepted a ride in his white pickup truck, but he forced her to go with him to the desert, where he assaulted her. The woman escaped and ran to a nearby house, Portillo said.

But because of insufficient evidence, Hilke was not charged until he was again arrested in November 1998 when a second victim, a prostitute, also reported him, Portillo said.

Again, Hilke had driven the woman to the desert to assault her, but she ran to a highway and summoned help. More victims, mostly drug-addicted prostitutes, then came forward, Portillo said.

Defense attorney Morton Borenstein said he will appeal.

“The victims all knew each other and had strong motive to string their stories together,” Borenstein said. “The rumors were on the street that Hilke . . . was someone who had murdered prostitutes.”

Several prostitutes have been slain in the Antelope Valley in the last decade, but there is no evidence that a single person is responsible for all their deaths, said Det. Paul Delhauer of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.

“The only rumors involving a white, middle-aged guy in a white truck had to do with sexual assault,” Delhauer said.