XPost: talk.politics.guns, neworleans.general, alt.abortion   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/theadvocate.com/con   
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   Daniel Meridy   
      
   For more than a decade, he raped strangers in New Orleans and Kansas City at   
   gun or knifepoint, authorities believe.   
      
   Yet while DNA technology has given law enforcement a potent tool to find   
   suspects in so-called “stranger rapes,” Daniel Meridy had never been   
   convicted of a crime.   
      
   Now Meridy, a 34-year-old Irish Channel resident, faces life imprisonment   
   after his arrest Monday in connection with four rapes in New Orleans over the   
   past few years. Investigators also suspect, based on DNA evidence, that he was   
   responsible for    
   sexually assaulting three strangers in Kansas City, Missouri, more than a   
   decade ago.   
      
   Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell set Meridy’s total bail at $1.6 million   
   after hearing the allegations on Tuesday.   
      
   The Kansas City attacks came first, police said in warrants. Investigators   
   suspect Meridy is responsible for three sexual assaults in 2004 and 2005.   
      
   Although stranger rapes capture the public's imagination and arouse fear, only   
   about three in 10 rapes are committed by someone who is not known to the   
   victim, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a group that   
   advocates against sexual    
   violence.   
      
   The victims in the Missouri assaults gave similar descriptions of their   
   attackers, but the crimes went unsolved, New Orleans police said. Authorities   
   there did not immediately comment.   
      
   Police allege that more than a decade after that spate of attacks, Meridy   
   continued his crimes in New Orleans. DNA evidence has linked him to four rapes   
   since 2015, they said:   
      
   • A June 7, 2015, rape in the 1800 block of Bayou Road, in Treme. Police   
   said a woman agreed to have sex in exchange for money with a man who picked   
   her up at Esplanade and North Claiborne avenues. But after they went to an   
   abandoned apartment complex    
   on Bayou Road, he pulled out a gun and forced her to give the money back. Then   
   he raped her.   
      
   • A May 26, 2016, rape in the 600 block of South Genois Street, in Mid-City.   
   A woman told police that after she got off a bus near Tulane Avenue, a man   
   with a handgun forced her into an alley and raped her.   
      
   • A Sept. 21, 2016, rape at Washington Avenue and Clara Street, in Central   
   City. Police said an unknown man offered the victim money for sex, which she   
   refused. Then he pulled out a gun and forced her to have sex next to an   
   abandoned building, the    
   woman said.   
      
   • An Oct. 13, 2018, rape in the 2400 block of South Johnson Street, in   
   Central City. Meridy is accused of placing a knife to a woman's throat after   
   spotting her on a Central City street and promising to give her a ride. She   
   said he raped her in an    
   alley next to an abandoned house.   
      
   The victims in the New Orleans attacks also gave similar descriptions of the   
   perpetrator, police said. All of them underwent sexual assault examinations   
   for DNA and other evidence at a hospital.   
      
   New Orleans police said that using DNA, they had connected the first three   
   assaults in New Orleans to a single, unknown attacker by September.   
      
   As the investigation continued, NOPD detective Kevin Richardson identified   
   Meridy as a suspect, warrants said. Police did not immediately explain how   
   they zeroed in on him, however.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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