Suspect in Rapes Now Faces Escape Counts

A North Hollywood man accused of robbing and sexually assaulting 12 San Fernando Valley women pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of escape and conspiracy to escape from Los Angeles County Jail in August.

David Keith Lewis, 26, a part-time gardener, was charged in Superior Court after being mistakenly transported out of the state on Aug. 17. The charges were added to the 75 counts of rape, kidnaping and robbery Lewis already faced.

Lewis apparently exchanged wristbands with an inmate at County Jail who was being extradited to Indiana on theft and forgery charges. Lewis, who was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, supposedly intended to bail himself out in Indiana on the lesser charges.

He was in Nevada, en route to Indiana, when Los Angeles officials discovered the error about midnight of the same day.

Lewis was extradited from Douglas County, Nev., over the weekend, Deputy Dist. Atty. Margaret Barreto-Morehouse said, and is being held without bail in Los Angeles County Jail.

Lewis is suspected of attacking Valley women between June, 1984, and January, 1985. The women were threatened with a gun or knife and taken from supermarket and department-store parking lots. They were forced to drive to secluded locations where they were raped. Some were forced to withdraw money from banking machines.