One more reason to have a firearm for home defense

[Paladin]

The police catch this guy after raping 3 or 4 women and the courts released him on bail and he rapes 3 more women while out on bail!

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3469591

"Nov. 18, 2005, 12:45PM

Man suspected in 3 rapes surrenders
By MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A 40-year-old man suspected of raping three women while free on bail after earlier sexual assault cases surrendered at the Harris County Sheriff's Office early today.

Jerry Lewis Ford turned himself in at about 1:30 a.m. to sheriff's detectives at 49 San Jacinto, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.

He was jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail on three charges of sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault and three of burglary with intent to commit a felony.

Earlier this week, Houston police linked Ford, who already had been charged with raping three women in the northwestern part of the city, with at least three other sexual assaults that have occurred since May, authorities said.

Officers arrested him when he appeared in court in May for a final hearing on a 2003 sexual assault case. The charges from that case ultimately were dismissed, police said.

"The complainant in that case never showed up in court, not a single time," Houston police Lt. Robert Manzo said.

Police collected a DNA sample from Ford after his arrest. After the evidence was placed in a national DNA database, investigators connected him with three other rapes that took place in 2001 and 2002 in the northwest Houston area, police said.

Ford eventually was released after posting bail totaling $180,000. Since then, however, he has been linked to three other rapes in northwest Houston, police said.

"He impersonated a police officer in at least one of the cases," Manzo said.

The victims in each case told investigators they were attacked after a man broke into their homes."

[MikeJ]

Well, to be fair, the guy hadn't been convicted of anything yet. If you want to wax indignant about something, wait three or four years. He'll probably get out on parole... :x

[Paladin]

They had DNA evidence that he raped 3 women, to me that says extreme danger to the community. To me it's plenty to hold him till trial. Of course I'm not a judge.

[longtooth]

Paladin, not a judge, but not a liberal either. Best of all not a worst of all liberal judge.

[j1132s]

They had DNA evidence that he raped 3 women, to me that says extreme danger to the community. To me it's plenty to hold him till trial. Of course I'm not a judge.

DNA testing can only exclude people and not ID the target. So, the above statement isn't accurate. Probably should say something like:
The DNA evidence didn't exclude him from being a possible perp.

I remember a court house field trip during middle school, andthe DA metioned that he'd rather let go 10 BGs then convict an innocent guy. That statement stuck w/ me and I think it makes sense. It seems that society jumps to conclusions too quick. For example the TV show Cops, if you just watch casually, they seem to present everything in pretty clearly, here's the good guy, there's the bad guy. But the producers don't even let the supposedly "BG" say anything (so you're really just getting 1 side of the story). I've actually probably watched Cops maybe 2 or so times, but that's how I feel after those shows.

[txinvestigator]

They had DNA evidence that he raped 3 women, to me that says extreme danger to the community. To me it's plenty to hold him till trial. Of course I'm not a judge.

DNA testing can only exclude people and not ID the target. So, the above statement isn't accurate. Probably should say something like:
The DNA evidence didn't exclude him from being a possible perp.

Not anymore. DNA can identify a person Each human cell contains three billion DNA base pairs. Our unique DNA, 0.1 percent of 3 billion, amounts to 3 million base pairs. This is more than enough to provide profiles that accurately identify a person. The only exception is identical twins, who share 100 percent identical DNA.

Even the military is creating a DNA databse to help identify its people killed in action or recovered MIA's.

It no longer simply excludes people.