Berkeley Man Arrested For Sexually Assaulting 3 Girls: Police

Berkeley, CA - A 24-year-old man was charged with four felony counts for allegedly sexually assaulting three underage girls in three separate incidents in Berkeley in 2008.

Johnny Dunbar was scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court this afternoon on the charges, which include two counts of forcible rape and one count of forcible oral copulation and attempted
forcible copulation.

Dunbar, who's also known as Johnny Dunbar IV, is also accused of using a knife in one incident, a gun in another and an unspecified deadly weapon in the third incident.

In addition, Dunbar is accused of committing two of the alleged sexual assaults during the course of first-degree burglaries. Prosecutors allege that two of the victims were under 14 at the time they were assaulted and the third was under 16.

The incidents allegedly occurred on June 21, July 8 and July 21 in 2008.

Berkeley police said in a statement that in 2008 they investigated a sexual assault series involving at least three victims and several other peeping and prowling cases but "despite a large amount of diligent work and
undercover operations we were not able to capture the suspect."

However, they said they obtained fingerprints at one of the crime scenes before the series stopped.

They were able to solve the case after they arrested Dunbar in March for a traffic warrant, as the fingerprints obtained during the jail booking process matched the fingerprints recovered at the sexual assault scene.

Based on those fingerprints, DNA and other evidence, Berkeley detectives obtained a search and arrest warrant for Dunbar and arrested him at his residence in the 1300 block of Delaware Street, near the North
Berkeley BART station, at 6:25 a.m. on Wednesday, police said.

In addition to the sexual assault charges, police also arrested Dunbar on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and a traffic warrant for driving on a suspended license but the Alameda County District Attorney's
Office decided not to charge him with those offenses.

Berkeley police Officer Melissa Kelly wrote in a probable cause statement that when officers served the search warrant at Dunbar's residence they recovered three scales, about 399 grams of marijuana, $4,438 in cash and
packaging materials consistent with selling marijuana.

Before his arraignment today, Dunbar was being held at the Berkeley Jail in lieu of $415,000 bail.
--Bay City News; Image by Renee Schiavone, Patch