Ferry Officer Pleads Innocent To Rape

Wed., May 3, 2000

From Staff

A state ferry officer charged in a torture attack on a prostitute pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges of rape and first-degree assault.

Hank Joseph Rapoza, 40, remained behind bars on $250,000 bond. He is under a suicide watch, said his attorney, John Henry Browne.

Rapoza was charged Friday after a 32-year-old woman picked him out of a police lineup as the customer who had driven her to a secluded area on April 18, stabbed her in both shoulders and raped her while digging his fingers into the stab wounds.

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