Homeless man pleads not guilty to rape charges
A 48-year-old homeless man accused of viciously raping and beating a woman in a Vons parking lot in Glendale last week pleaded not guilty Tuesday to several charges connected to the attack, officials said.
Michael Zinzun, a registered sex offender, was charged with one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by foreign object, kidnapping to commit rape and resisting an executive officer by the use of force or violence, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Zinzun has two strikes on his record from prior criminal convictions in Florida — one for committing a lewd act with a minor under 14 in 1998 and another for a burglary of an occupied home in 2005, officials said.
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He was slated to be arraigned Monday but refused to leave the jail, so a judge signed a court order to get him out the following day, according to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokeswoman.
If convicted, Zinzun faces up to life in state prison.
“He’s looking at three strikes,” said Glendale Police Sgt. Robert William.
The attack occurred shortly before 4 a.m. last Thursday, when Zinzun approached a stranger sleeping on a bus bench near Los Feliz Road and Central Avenue, and asked her if she wanted to smoke meth, William said.
The woman said no.
He continued to speak to her, and she asked him to leave her alone.
Zinzun then reportedly began sexually assaulting the victim, threatening to harm her if she didn’t stop screaming.
After dragging her away from the bench, police said he pushed her over a 3-foot retaining wall and into the Vons supermarket parking lot, where he allegedly raped her, strangled her and punched her face repeatedly.
A worker loading his truck at the grocery store saw the attack and called 911.
The first officer on scene saw Zinzun standing over the woman, who was lying on the ground half naked with visible injuries. As the witness told police what happened, Zinzun took off running, leading officers on a short pursuit into the boiler room at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital, where he fought with officers, William said.
As of Tuesday, the woman had been released from the hospital.
An officer involved in the fight, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital on Thursday with injuries to his hand.
Zinzun is being held in lieu of more than $3.3-million bail and is due in court later this month.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
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