Sex offender sentenced for roadside attack

A registered sex offender was sentenced Friday to 14 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl on the side of a road in Huntington Beach.

Rasaan Raymon Patton, 31, attacked the girl in June 2008 after he crashed into a minivan she was driving, which forced her to pull over, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The victim was able to escape after Patton was startled by passing vehicles, prosecutors said.

Patton was arrested at his Riverside County home in April 2009 after investigators matched his fingerprints to a partial handprint on the minivan’s door, the district attorney’s office said.

In June, he was convicted of one felony count each of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, attempted forcible rape, sexual penetration by foreign object by force and sexual battery by restraint.

Patton faces a sentencing enhancement for a previous conviction in a 1999 rape in Riverside County, according to the district attorney’s office.

Patton was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

This story was reported by Times Staff Writer Stephen Ceasar.