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.