Suspected rapist faces multiple charges

A Lake Forest man is scheduled to go on trial next week on charges that he sexually assaulted multiple women in Orange County — including one in Newport Beach — over the last decade.

Sekayi Rudo White, 33, is charged with 14 counts of rape, attempted rape and a litany of sentencing enhancements for allegedly using death threats, a knife and forcing himself on half a dozen women from 2002 to 2007. He is accused of attacking some of the victims while out on bail for other rape charges.

Among the alleged attacks was a December 2005 attempted rape in a 44-year-old woman’s Newport Beach apartment.

Prosecutors claim he met the woman at the Irvine Spectrum and offered to drive her home. The woman let White inside her apartment to use the bathroom, and when he emerged he was fully nude and erect, authorities said.

White pinned her down, fondled her and removed her clothes while threatening to kill her, prosecutors allege. When the victim screamed, he grabbed his clothes and fled.

Officials said that about eight months later, in August 2006, White picked up a 22-year-old woman in a Huntington Beach bar and took her to his house. She reportedly passed out and woke up with White on top of her, trying to have sex with her.

He allegedly raped her later on in the apartment and dropped her off at a nearby convenience store where a friend picked her up, authorities said.

White was arrested two months later and charged with attacking the two women.

After posting $250,000 bail, White allegedly raped a woman he was dating and her roommate on separate occasions in early 2007. Prosecutors said he raped a fifth woman in April of that year.

Prosecutors publicized the case and a sixth woman stepped forward, saying White raped her in 2002.

White faces up to 119 years in prison if convicted on all charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.