More charges for rape suspect
An East Frankford man accused of abducting, raping and slashing a 16-year-old girl on her way to school earlier this month has been charged with a similar abduction and sex assault of a schoolgirl last year.
An East Frankford man accused of abducting, raping and slashing a 16-year-old girl on her way to school earlier this month has been charged with a similar abduction and sex assault of a schoolgirl last year.
Assistant District Attorney Richard DeSipio, who is prosecuting Jason Johnson, 32, in the Jan. 3 attack on the 16-year-old, said Johnson was charged yesterday with abducting a 14-year-old girl on Jan. 8, 2007, at a bus stop near his home, taking her to a park and beginning an assault on her that was cut short when she uttered a piercing scream.
In the case of the 16-year-old, a sophomore at Simon Gratz High School who was held for 12 hours, raped and tied up, and whose thoat was slashed, Johnson told the girl he had a gun, DeSipio said.
He had actually pointed a gun at the 14-year-old, DeSipio said.
Police learned that Johnson was the alleged attacker in the 2007 case after the younger girl, now 15, saw his mug shot on TV when he was arrested in the Jan. 3 case.
The teen promptly contacted Detective Joe Jenkins, who handled her case. Jenkins teamed up with Detective Harry Young and Officer Stephen Ratka, who had arrested Johnson in the Simon Gratz student's rape.
Johnson was charged in the 2007 case with kidnapping, sex assault and gun charges.
Police Special Victims Capt. John Darby said his unit and other police agencies are investigating the possibility that Johnson could have been behind other attacks.
As with the 16-year-old, whose bra and panties Johnson allegedly kept, he ran off with the underwear, as well as the Catholic school uniform, of the younger girl after being scared off by her screaming.
The girl, now 15, had been waiting for a bus at Penn and Oxford streets, four blocks from Johnson's apartment, on Oxford Street near Lesher.
She was going to Mercy Vocational High School. Johnson allegedly forced her to accompany him to nearby Overton Park.
The girl said she was taken to a playground area of the park, where Johnson allegedly demanded that she take off her clothes and give him her bra, panties and school uniform.
He demanded that she perform oral sex on him, at which point he started to touch her sexually and she screamed, DeSipio said. *
