Florida Serial Rapist Rapalo Captured

FOX NEWS | 12/26

[MJY1288]

CAPTURED

[MJY1288]

Details soon

[MJY1288]

Police: Accused Rapist Who Escaped in Custody

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

MIAMI — A man accused of sexually assaulting seven girls and women was recaptured late Monday, nearly a week after escaping from jail by rappelling down the building on bed sheets, police said.

is also accused of attacking four others in the Little Havana area in 2002 and 2003. He was awaiting a February trial that could have sent him to prison for life.

Rapalo and another inmate escaped Dec. 19 after climbing through a vent in the 7-foot ceiling of a cell on the sixth floor and made it to the roof on the same level, police said.

The vent, which connects to the roof, was supposed to be locked, but had been pried open, and bars blocking it were cut.

The other inmate, , who was also awaiting trial on sexual assault charges, was captured outside the jail after breaking his legs when he jumped.

Police have said the sawlike tools used in the escape may have been smuggled in, and Rapalo apparently plotted the breakout for months.

Local and federal authorities had been scouring neighborhoods, airports, train stations and ports for Rapalo, a 34-year-old Honduran. Guards were assigned to victims who still live in the area, and a $36,000 award for tips leading to Rapalo's arrest was offered.

Two corrections officers were placed on paid administrative leave as part of the investigation. The officers were not accused of being involved in the escape, and they have not been disciplined, said , director of the Miami-Dade Corrections Department.

McRay also ordered that all vents at the jail be welded shut and that lighting be improved.

Rapalo was accused of being the , who was the target of a massive manhunt following attacks on girls and women from age 11 to 79. Police say Rapalo, who was arrested in September 2003, was linked to the rapes by DNA evidence.

During the original search for the rapist, more than 120 men, most of them Hispanic, were stopped by Miami police and asked to volunteer DNA samples, a tactic that was denounced by civil rights activists. Billboards with an artist's rendering of the serial rape suspect were posted throughout the city.

The inability to catch the rapist terrified women and the parents of young girls across the Little Havana area. One victim was 79 years old. Three others were young girls who were attacked in the span of four weeks. An 11-year-old was raped as she arrived home from school.

[Hoodat]

Any chance that his capture came after being fatally inflicted with multiple high-caliber rounds fired by police?

[darkangel82]

Let's hope this guy gets the chair.

[djf]

This POS is lucky he's got the cops and lawyers to protect him now.

If there was any sense in our world, he'd be nutless before the next nightfall!!

[MJY1288]

Could you please correct the spelling "Repaldo" = "Repalo"

[EDINVA]

good news!

[MJY1288]

LOL, Still got it wrong, the correct spelling is "Rapalo"

[Liberfighter]

"a 34-year-old Honduran"

Was he here LEGALLY?

Raped a 11 year old girl. Sorry to be emotional, but close the borders.

[MJY1288]

NOPE, He was an illegal

[decal]

"...escaping from jail by rappelling down the building on bed sheets..."

They should redeem those bed sheets by hanging this filth with them.

[MJY1288]

All that needs to be done is place this POS in general population and he will face justice very soon

[Carling]

Rapalo the rapist rappelled?

[MJY1288]

I would make a crude Barney Frank joke, but I will refrain :-)

[kcvl]

Reynaldo Rapalo, a Honduran citizen whose visa had expired, was arrested Septmeber 19, 2003 after terrorizing the Miami community. He was scheduled to appear in court in February of 2006 for DNA evidence that allegedly links him to seven rapes and four attempted assaults in Shenandoah, Florida in 2003. Rapalo was housed in a maximum-security wing reserved for offenders accused of lewd and lascivious crimes.

Cops say Rapalo's escape was not noticed at first by guards. According to authorities, someone visitng the correctional center asked officials about the bedsheets dangling along the exterior walls. The facility immediately went into lockdown and guards discovered the pair climbed through a vent in the ceiling, which dumps onto a seventh-floor roof.

[kcvl]

Police chased him down on foot on a southwest Miami street after a tipster called in Rapalo's location and description, Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said.

"He is a very dangerous individual and we are very glad to have him back in custody tonight," Parker said.

Police have said the sawlike tools used in the escape may have been smuggled in, and Rapalo apparently plotted the breakout for months.

"We suspect that he had some help," Parker said. "We took some things off of him - he still had the blade that he used to escape."


http://tinyurl.com/d67zh

[MJY1288]

Thanks for the link

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Yes, but will he beat the "rap"?

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/Item/19/11/76/i191176sq01.jpg

[MJY1288]

MSNBC is live with the details