Man Charged In Center City Office Building Rape Has History Of Trespassing Into South Jersey Offices: Investigators
WOODBURY, N.J. (CBS) -- Willie Harris, the man accused of beating and raping an office worker inside a Center City law firm Tuesday, has a history of trespassing into law and medical offices in Woodbury, according to New Jersey investigators.
Police in Washington Township arrested Harris, 49, Thursday night after a nurse at Jefferson Health Washington Township recognized Harris and called officers.
Amanda Gresko, an office manager at Marmero Law in Woodbury, said she had two different encounters with Harris.
"I nearly fainted when I looked at that picture," Gresko said after she saw Harris was wanted on sex crime charges. "I was like, 'Oh my God, this guy was in my office.'"
Gresko says the first time Harris came to her office was in 2019 when, she said, he snuck in from the basement and tried to barricade himself in an office.
"I tried to open and eventually body-slammed it," Gresko said. "He was standing right there looking at me and just like a deer in headlights."
She says he kept asking to see an attorney, and he wouldn't answer her questions.
"Then he actually shoved me into the wall, pushed me out of the way and ran out the front door," Gresko said.
She called the police to file a report, but she said Harris wasn't arrested.
Gresko said she saw Harris again last week after she said he snuck in through the back door and rummaged through the office fridge.
After questioning Harris again, she said he eventually left the office.
Woodbury police said their city surveillance cameras captured Harris going into different law and medical offices last week and this past Wednesday, one day after Philadelphia police said he raped the Center City law office worker.
Harris' criminal record goes all the way back to 1992. The majority of his 26 convictions are for burglary and trespassing, though he also has two robbery convictions from 1993 and 2007.
"It's just a lack of faith in the justice system at this point," Gresko said. "How do people like this keep getting to go on? This could've been prevented."
Harris is in the Salem County Jail awaiting extradition to Philadelphia on multiple felony sex crimes.