Man innocent in 4th campus area assault

The man police said is responsible for two attempted rapes, one rape and an indecent assault in the immediate campus area was again found innocent of a sexually related crime yesterday in a Philadelphia Municipal Courtroom. But 36-year-old Raydell Luke was found guilty of robbery, simple assault and related charges yesterday and could face up to 20 years in jail for the robbery conviction alone. Luke was also found innocent of a rape charge and two attempted rape charges in three separate trials over the last three months. All of the incidents, including the one heard in yesterday's trial, occurred within blocks of campus. Before yesterday's ruling by Municipal Court Judge Anthony De Fino, the only major charge Luke was found guilty of was indecent assault of a woman visiting the University in May 1990. The victim at yesterday's hearing was a University employee who recognized Luke outside an Acme Supermarket store a month after her attack and was responsible for helping police locate and arrest him. During her testimony, the victim told a nearly empty courtroom that Luke followed her into her apartment on the 4300 block of Spruce Street, put a knife to her throat, and put his hand in her underwear and inside her brassiere. She testified that she had been dropped off by a friend near the corner of 44th and Spruce streets on the night of December 30 last year, and had rushed through the rain eastward to her apartment. When she got there, she said Luke was waiting outside the building. When she opened the outer door to the building, Luke followed her inside. As she was about to open a second inner door, he pushed her to the side of the foyer and demanded money, she testified. The victim said that Luke turned her around to face him and it was then that he put the knife against her throat. The victim, who identified Luke as her attacker, said after sexually assaulting her, he took her money and fled, leaving her in the foyer. After more than two hours of testimony, De Fino ruled that Luke was guilty of robbery and the related charges but not sexual assault. De Fino agreed with Luke's lawyer that prosecutors did not prove Luke was actually attempting to sexually assault her when he put his hand inside her clothes. Defense lawyers had argued that Luke was just looking for money. The victim, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was at times difficult to understand while on the stand. During one exchange, both the court reporter and the attorneys argued about whether she had said Luke looked like he was "harmless" or "homeless." Assistant District Attorney Jeanette Synnestvedt also called Philadelphia Police Sex Crimes Officer Dominic Guillespie to the stand to testify that the victim had identified Luke in a photograph. Defense Attorney Thomas Innes, who replaced Stephen Gross as Luke's lawyer, questioned the victim about inconsistencies in her story. Innes, attempting to discredit her testimony, told the court that she had told police that Luke's knife was a little larger than a penknife, but later said that the knife was a kitchen knife. Innes, who asked leading questions to which the witness answered "yes" or "no," interrupted her testimony at one point to contend that the victim had changed her testimony. Innes said the witness first claimed that Luke held her from behind, then changed her testimony to say that Luke faced her during the incident. Judge De Fino disagreed, saying that he had the impression that Luke faced her the entire time, and Synnestvedt strongly objected to Innes' claim. After the court reporter read nearly 10 minutes of testimony, De Fino maintained his assumption that Luke had faced his victim the entire time. The victim delivered over two hours of testimony and was recalled later in the afternoon by Synnestvedt. Synnestvedt said after the conclusion of the trial that she was pleased with the testimony of the victim. "The witness did a good job," Synnestvedt said. "She suffers from cerebral palsy and it was very nerve racking for her to come to court." "It was hard on her both physically and emotionally," Synnestvedt said. "She was up there nearly two and a half hours." Luke is scheduled to be sentenced on yesterday's convictions in January. He will also be sentenced next week for the May 1990 indecent assault of a woman who was visiting the University. Although Luke was charged with attempted rape in that incident, Judge Gene Cohen last month found him guilty of the lesser charge of indecent assault, stating that the prosecutor did not prove Raydell had the intent to rape her. Luke was acquitted in September of charges that he tried to rape a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia doctor in 1988 in her off-campus apartment. A Municipal Court judge also found Luke innocent of a December 30 rape of a University employee just two hours before the victim in yesterday's case was attacked. Innes, Luke's defense attorney, could not be reached for comment after the trial.

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