Judge Sets Trial Date in Rapes of Transients

A judge on Monday set a Dec. 10 trial date for a convicted sex offender who police say has systematically raped and imprisoned women transients and prostitutes in the city’s most blighted areas over the past 14 years.

Superior Court Judge James A. Bascue set the trial date for Lemuel Z. Harris of Hollywood. Harris, 35, has been charged with 22 felony counts stemming from the alleged kidnaping and rape of one woman last August and the alleged rape of another woman he is accused of holding forcibly in his apartment for a week last July.

Harris has pleaded not guilty and is being held in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. Interviews with authorities and a review of court records indicate that Harris is suspected of having committed rapes and other sex crimes against at least 12 women since 1976, during periods when he was not in prison on sex-related offenses and parole violations.