DNA linked to accused rapist

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles Police Department criminalist testified Tuesday that the genetic code of Tyreese Reed, a man accused of attacking and raping seven women in Beverly Hills, Glendale and Koreatown, matched DNA collected from two women.

Criminalist Jennifer Butterworth explained to jurors that a person’s DNA is uniquely his or her own and that a saliva swab sample collected from the inside of Reed’s mouth matched hair, mouth and lip specimens taken from three women.

Every person’s DNA profile is different, she said.

Reed’s DNA was a one-in-a-quadrillion match with the two alleged victims that the Police Department tested, Butterworth testified.

Two other women were tested in other labs, and Reed’s DNA was again a match, Deputy Dist. Atty Marc Beaart said.

Reed, 32, was arrested July 29, 2005, in Koreatown and charged with 18 felony counts, which include three counts of forcible rape, three counts of forcible oral copulation, three counts of attempted oral copulation, five counts of second-degree robbery, two counts of burglary, one count of sodomy by use of force and one count of kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint.

Reed faces a maximum of 150 years in state prison if convicted, according to the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

Reed is charged with attacking seven Asian women aged 17 to 55 between Aug. 26, 2004, and June 15, 2005, but Los Angeles police believe he is responsible for 13 sexual assaults and robberies, including one in Glendale on April 15, 2005.

While seven women are listed in the complaint, Beaart said only five women would likely testify against Reed.

Criminalists cleared another man — who was arrested May 20, 2005, on suspicion of committing these crimes — when his DNA did not match up with samples taken from the victims, Butterworth said.

Police kept looking for other men who matched the description of the suspect, whom police dubbed the “Koreatown Rapist,” Beaart said during his opening statement Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“We were back to square one,” he said.

Beaart detailed some of the attacks, including one in which Reed allegedly forced a pregnant woman to perform oral copulation on him, to the jurors Tuesday.

Another attack was on a Silver Lake woman who had just arrived home from spending time with her boyfriend and was pushed into her apartment as she unlocked the front door, he said.