Repeat rape suspect linked to 2000 assault

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man was indicted on Friday in the rapes of three women — two reported in the last month and one in 2000.

Charges in the indictment of James Daniel III, 33, include rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He was arrested Sept. 18 after DNA tests linked him to the rape of a 46-year-old woman attacked while jogging on Sept. 2 in Cleveland, police said.

Authorities have said DNA testing also has linked Daniel to an Aug. 30 rape of a woman walking along a street in suburban Lakewood and to a rape and home invasion in February 2000 in Cleveland.

Daniel is being held on $750,000 bail.

Daniel has a long criminal record but no previous sex offense-related charges. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 for robbery and was released on March 31.

A neighborhood security camera recorded a portion of the recent Cleveland assault. Police made the disturbing recording public with the victim’s permission in the hope of finding her assailant. The video showed a man sprinting to catch up with the woman as she jogged, the assailant grabbing and beating her and then forcing her behind an apartment building.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Thursday that investigators learned in May that Daniel’s DNA had been linked to the 2000 rape. A Cuyahoga County prosecutor told the newspaper that a Cleveland sex-crimes investigator had contacted Daniel’s parole officer to obtain a DNA sample from him to confirm the match.

About a dozen investigators assigned to Cuyahoga County’s DNA Cold Case Task Force are working on more than 1,000 cases for which rape-test kits have indicated the presence of DNA.