Thursday, October 28, 2004
Public safety briefs
DNA links bank robber to 7 rapes, officials say
A convicted bank robber has been linked to seven Cincinnati rapes dating to 1995, officials said Wednesday.
The DNA from the suspect, who remains in an Ohio prison, was put into a computer and matched against DNA samples taken from the victims.
As required by Ohio law, people convicted of violent and serious felony crimes have their DNA taken when they arrive in prison.
In this case, the 33-year-old man had his mouth swabbed in April, and the matches were discovered and confirmed earlier this month.
Attorney General Jim Petro and Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Carl Parrott Jr. announced the match Wednesday.
Petro praised Parrott's forensics lab, saying it's farther ahead than most counties on processing DNA evidence and entering it into the growing statewide database.
The rapes, from June 1995 through December 2003, happened on Cincinnati's east side, including in Roselawn and Pleasant Ridge.
The suspect has not been charged in the rapes.
Teen allegedly sold drugs in his front yard
The teen was arrested and charged with trafficking in cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school, Cincinnati police said.
He was arrested in the 3600 block of Northdale Place.
Police said he was to go back to court Nov. 24 on the previous charges.
Officers who arrested the teen Wednesday were part of the Community Response Team, the Cincinnati Police Department's program that pulls together extra officers for two, 12-hour days to address neighborhood complaints, often about drugs.
