Accused Rapist on Trial

Richard Dorsey accused of sexually assaulting five women

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By Kate McPherson
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Story Created: Sep 19, 2012 at 7:17 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Sep 19, 2012 at 9:11 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - A man police say is a serial rapist was in the Anchorage Superior Court Wednesday for the first day of his trial.

Prosecutors say between 2001 and 2004, Richard Dorsey, 46, assaulted five women who were working as prostitutes in the Spenard area.

He's charged with 12 offenses, including 4 counts of rape (twice with the same woman), 2 counts of attempted rape and multiple counts of assault.

Police did not link Dorsey to the crimes until 2009, when he was on trial for sexually assaulting a woman in a Carrs store on Huffman Road. During the trial, Detective Sergeant Ken McCoy became suspicious of Dorsey and ordered an in-depth investigation. This included digging out unsolved sexual assaults that had occurred in the previous 10 years.

Detective Jean Dupuis with the APD found one particular case that Dorsey might be a possible suspect for.

‘The significant thing from that 2002 case that he brought to my attention was that there was an unknown DNA sample, a sperm sample, collected in that case that we never received a match for,” said McCoy during his testimony in front of a 14-member jury Wednesday.

But in 2009, when this case was brought to Sergeant McCoy’s attention, APD didn’t have a DNA sample from Dorsey.

When court was adjourned during Dorsey’s 2009 trial, Sergeant McCoy took a Styrofoam cup that Dorsey had been drinking from.

“I made my observations he was the only one drinking form the cup; he abandoned the cup, I waited 15 minutes to ensure he had no intentions of coming back for it or no one else was utilizing the cup,” said McCoy in court Wednesday.

McCoy submitted the DNA from the cup to be analyzed and it came back a match to the DNA of the 2002 cold case.

This helped police build a case against Dorsey and lead to more cold cases being examined.

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NACI said on Sunday, Sep 23 at 3:38 PM

Too bad we don't have rape as a capitol crime with the death penalty.

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Shawn Klemmer Jr. said on Thursday, Sep 20 at 12:32 PM

Really good job by the A.P.D. on this case. And,yes. Another lifer for the D.O.C. Alaska.

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TedtheBear said on Thursday, Sep 20 at 10:37 AM

Another soon to be lifer for DOC Alaska.

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