A Santa Monica man has been charged with raping a woman near Culver City in October and kidnapping a female UCLA student in March to try to rape her, authorities said.
Alexander Schecter, 26, was initially arrested at his Santa Monica home on March 12 after UCLA Police Department officers identified him as the suspect in a case where he allegedly prevented two female students from leaving his car near campus.
On March 8 around 3 a.m., two female students reported that a man prevented them from exiting his vehicle and threatened violence when they were being dropped off near UCLA, police said. Schecter posted bail and was released.
As UCPD officers continued to investigate they identified Schecter as the suspect in a previously unreported sexual assault involving a separate woman that happened about five months before the alleged kidnapping.
Neither Schecter nor the other female victim is believed to have any connection to the university, police said. UCPD officers rearrested him on March 21. He then posted $100,000 bail and was released, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s inmate information center.
On Thursday, he was charged with one count of kidnapping to commit another crime, one count of first degree residential robbery, two counts of forcible oral copulation and one count of rape, according to the criminal complaint. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.
He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman on Oct. 12 between 2 and 5 a.m. in the area of Venice Boulevard and Clarington Avenue on the border of Palms and Culver City, police said. The residential robbery and forcible oral copulation charges are also from this incident, according to court records.
Detectives believe there may be additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact the UCPD’s investigations division at (310) 825-9371.
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