Man Arrested In 32-Year-Old Sexual Assault Case
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – After more than 30 years on the run, Miami-Dade Police believe they have tracked down a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman.
Stephen Reisman is accused of the crime that took place on June 5, 1981.
Police said the crime occurred when he spent the night at his tenant's house at 5685 NW 194th Lane. When his tenants returned to the apartment, police say, Reisman armed with a golf club and a gun and allegedly told them "this is a robbery."
He reportedly stole $300.00 from one tenant, Vincent Boehme and tied him up. A probable cause affidavit stated he waited for his second tenant Barbara Houston. He allegedly stole 3 rings and a bracelet all worth $2,000, according to police.
Police said he then ordered Houston to invite her friend over for dinner. The woman whose initials are J.D. came only to be robbed and raped, police said.
For 32 years, Reisman whose listed address was in Miami Beach had been on the run. More recently, he told a bond court judge that he had been helping a friend build a hostel in Honduras.
Reisman has at least two aliases and three different birth dates. On Friday, he told a judge that his name was not Stephen Reisman, but answered to Joel McFarland.
Reisman was captured after being nabbed for theft of a car recently in the St. Petersburg area.
A DNA swab was taken and submitted into a statewide data bank.
The results came back as an exact match to semen collected from the victim and maintained by CSI Miami-Dade for more than 32 years.
CBS4 News reached the victim in the decades-old case in central Florida, where she is now living. Twenty seven years old at the time she was attacked, she is now 60.
"It's surreal," the woman told CBS4's Gary Nelson. "I went right back into having flashbacks and nightmares that I have had my entire life, once I got the call from the detective."
The woman said she believes Reisman has other victims in his past, and called the advancements in DNA technology "amazing."
She said she has told prosecutors she is prepared to testify against Reisman if asked.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Stacy Glick appointed a public defender and ordered him held no bond.