NEW YORK — A man suspected of raping at least 25 women in three states — including Maryland — has been arrested in the 1973 rape of a Manhattan woman after DNA tests on her 32-year-old underwear linked him to the attack.
Clarence Williams, 58, was connected this month to the Manhattan attack and to attacks in Montgomery County and in New Jersey after the federal DNA database matched a DNA sample from him to DNA left in those attacks, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
“This case … will send a chill through defendants to know that you can still test for DNA after 32 years,” Mr. Morgenthau said.
Investigators in Montgomery County said they are confident the same man is to blame for at least four rapes and four attempted rapes in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Kensington. They said the suspect descriptions are similar, as was the way the rapist attacked.
Police plan to determine whether any DNA evidence is left.
The crimes occurred between 1987 and 1991, but police were unable to find a suspect. After the DNA match was discovered in New York, police learned that Mr. Williams lived in Silver Spring and the District when the rapes in Montgomery County occurred.
Charges are pending in Montgomery County, and it was not known yesterday when they would be filed, said Officer Derek Baliles, a police spokesman.
Police have contacted at least five victims, who said they are willing to testify at a trial.
Mr. Williams was at large because he had jumped bail while awaiting retrial on rape charges in Manhattan and Queens, Mr. Morgenthau said. His 1974 Manhattan trial ended with a hung jury, and the 1975 conviction in Queens was reversed in 1976.
Released on bail pending retrial of the cases, Mr. Williams fled in 1978, and warrants were issued for his arrest, prosecutors said.
He was arrested last year in DeKalb County, Ga., after he tried to buy a shotgun, Mr. Morgenthau said. When authorities conducted a background check based on information he gave them, the New York bail-jump warrants surfaced and he was arrested.
Mr. Williams, who had been living in Clarkston, Ga., has been extradited to New York. Mr. Morgenthau said that when the 1973 Manhattan victim was told about the arrest, “I think she was upset but extremely grateful.”
Because Mr. Williams had been indicted in Manhattan and Queens before he fled, Mr. Morgenthau said, the statute of limitations did not apply. Both of those cases are still pending.
In 1973, there was no testing of DNA — the so-called genetic fingerprint that is unique to each person. But when prosecutors from the Cold Case DNA Project submitted the underwear to the chief medical examiner in New York for testing, a profile from semen was developed and sent to the federal Combined DNA Indexing System database, or CODIS.
CODIS compared the semen evidence to all available rape kit samples.
Mr. Williams was charged in Manhattan with rape, sexual abuse, robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and several lesser crimes. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.
Mr. Williams’ attorney, Michael Rubin, said his client “has maintained his innocence throughout” and the latest charges “are new to us.” He said Mr. Williams, who is being held at Rikers Island in New York without bail, is scheduled in court in Manhattan on May 17.
The Montgomery County cases were linked by the federal database to two unsolved sexual assault cases in 1993 in Morris County, N.J.
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