Sexual Predator Is Stalking Los Feliz-Area Schoolgirls
Seventeen assaults have been reported since '95. Police issue warning that the pace is accelerating.

by Erika Hayasaki and Mitchell Landsberg
Times Staff Writers

December 16, 2002

A potbellied, flat-faced man wearing a beanie has sexually assaulted 17 schoolgirls in Los Feliz and nearby neighborhoods since 1995, evading arrest despite a pattern of consistent and often brazen behavior, authorities said.

The victims, most of them students at Franklin and Marshall high schools, have ranged in age from 11 to 17. Three have been raped; 13 have been groped or fondled, or broke free after being grabbed; and one was forced to perform oral sex, police said.

The most recent victim, a 17-year-old Marshall High senior, was dragged beneath the Hyperion Avenue Bridge and raped on the morning of Nov. 21 as she walked to a gym before school.

"I thought I was already dead," she said in an interview. "First thing I thought was, 'OK, this morning was the last morning I will see my mom.' "

Her mother, on the verge of tears as she listened to her daughter recount the attack, complained that police and school officials haven't done enough to apprehend the attacker. She questioned why they hadn't deployed cameras and guards, even volunteer retirees to patrol the area.

"Are we waiting until somebody gets killed?" she asked.

Other parents and students expressed similar concerns as news of the latest attack spread. Police said that although they have circulated a composite sketch and the attacks have often been in the same places, the sporadic timing has frustrated their best efforts. School officials said they have repeatedly warned parents and students about the danger, most recently the day after the November rape.

Most of the assaults have occurred during daylight, either before 8 a.m., when students are on their way to school, or from 3 to 5 p.m., after school.

The first six attacks - from April 1995 to January 1998 - occurred on a single, 350-yard stretch of Hyperion Avenue in Los Feliz, a few blocks northeast of Marshall High.

It was not until the fifth attack, and first rape, in July 1997 that police concluded from victims' descriptions that they were dealing with a single assailant, said Det. Gregory Stone, a Los Angeles Police Department rape investigator.

Since then, "we've had extra patrols, extra officers, in the areas for weeks at a time," he said. But he said officers could be deployed only "for so long before you have other community needs that have to be addressed."

Before last year, the assaults had been reported at intervals of two months to more than a year. But in 2001, the pace accelerated: There were eight attacks, four in a two-month stretch, including two on the same day in March. This year, there have been three more.

Since the first rape, police, community groups and school officials have been distributing fliers with sketches of the man, who is described as a heavy-set Latino, 35 to 50 years old, with large, fleshy hands, a "potato-shaped" nose and a pot belly. He is usually unshaven, has a strong body odor and wears a beanie or knit cap, authorities said. They said he typically jogs up to the victims from behind and frequently tries to drag them to more secluded spots.

In all, nine attacks have occurred on or near the Hyperion Bridge on a common route to Marshall. Eight of the victims in those nine attacks were Marshall students, and two of them were raped, police said.

The other attacks have been more spread out, including three assaults on Franklin High students walking to or from school, as well as one rape. Others occurred in the nearby neighborhoods of Atwater Village, Highland Park, Montecito Heights and Silver Lake. Police believe the rape of a private school student in Cypress Park also may be connected to the same suspect.

The most recent rape victim said she was walking across the Hyperion Bridge just after sunrise, taking the same route she has taken to school every day for four years. Seeing a shadow behind her, she turned around and saw a man jogging toward her. He grabbed her and asked for money. She gave him $5. "I told him, 'Please let me go,' " she said. "Then he took me down the hill."

He put a beanie over her face. "I screamed," she recalled. "He said, 'If you scream one more time, I will break your neck.' So I tried to calm myself and him down. I told him, 'You don't know what you are doing to me. You're going to hurt me for life.' He said, 'No, I'm not.' And I knew then things would change forever."

The teenager said she was given morning-after pills by a doctor, but remains worried that she may contract a sexually transmitted disease.

"I don't think it will ever be over for me," she said. "It might be less bad, but I don't think I will ever get over it."

The Times is withholding her name because the paper does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults.

The latest assault heightened concerns among Marshall students, some of whom had been only vaguely aware of the danger. "I haven't even seen a sketch of that guy," said Valerie Gomez, 16. "Cameras would help. But they should have done that a long time ago. It seems like they don't care."

One parent, Margarita Zelaya, who was waiting for her 14-year-old daughter to get out of school, said she is too afraid to allow her daughter to walk home. "The school needs more adults outside watching the children," she said.

Rosa Morley, director of school services at Marshall High, said the school is doing all it can. Marshall and Franklin high schools have sent letters home to parents, warning them to have students walk in groups and to remain cautious.

"Other than to be vigilant to parents, there isn't much more the school can do," Morley said. "It is a police problem; it's not a problem the school can solve.... We don't have the resources to put people on the streets, like crossing guards, when we have [thousands of] students in a year-round school."

Everyone is frustrated that the assailant remains at large, said Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents District 4, where most of the attacks have occurred.

"We've worked closely with the community, the school, the LAPD and special section detectives on this case," he said. "It's very unfortunate that this situation has taken place a number of times."

Police asked anyone with information about the assaults to call Stone at (213) 763-5061.

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.