Suspect charged in 1995 rape case

He is one of 20 who face prosecution after a massive reopening of improperly shelved cases in Phila.

By Craig R. McCoy,
Mark Fazlollah,
and Michael Matza
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Five years after Melody Madison was beaten and raped on a deserted playground, Philadelphia police finally launched a serious investigation.

Now, a North Philadelphia man has been ordered to stand trial for the attack.

The suspect is one of at least 20 who face prosecution for rape and other crimes as a result of a massive reinvestigation by the Police Department of cases improperly shelved by the sex-crimes unit since 1995.

Madison, bleeding from the mouth, called 911 from a pay phone in August 1995 to report that she had been raped by a man who had followed her out of a bar.

The sex-crimes unit closed the case after a cursory investigation.

The Inquirer spotlighted the case last fall in articles describing how the sex-crimes unit had dumped thousands of cases since its inception in 1981.

The articles prompted Police Commissioner John F. Timoney in December to reopen more than 2,000 cases going back five years, the statute of limitations for rape.

Madison's complaint was among those that got a fresh look.

Last month, detectives arrested William Fabian, 40, on charges of rape, indecent assault and other offenses.

At a court hearing April 4, Madison identified him as her attacker.

In an interview last week, she said she was grateful that police found Fabian before the statute of limitations had expired.

"If it had been more than five years, he would have gotten away with it," said Madison, 39. "Thank the Lord, he won't go after anyone else."

Fabian's court-appointed lawyer, Scott F. Griffith, said his client plans to plead not guilty. Griffith said the five-year delay in arresting Fabian could compromise his rights, because potential alibi witnesses may be difficult to find.

Fabian, who has served time for robbery and burglary convictions, is in a city prison, having failed to post $5,000 bail.

The 2,000-plus cases under review were mothballed by the sex-crimes unit after little or no investigation and deliberately misclassified so they would not show up in crime statistics.

Timoney assigned 45 detectives to reinvestigate the complaints, an arduous task complicated by the resentment of many of the victims and the difficulty of finding witnesses and suspects years later.

Among the suspects arrested thus far are a man accused of repeatedly raping two girls, ages 7 and 8; another man charged with raping his 10-year-old stepsister; and a third who allegedly sodomized a 9-year-old boy.

Madison had spent the night of Aug. 24, 1995, at the Travelers Motorcycle Club, an after-hours bar near her home in North Philadelphia. She was walking home after midnight when she noticed a man from the bar following her into the playground of the Martin Luther King Recreation Center at Cecil B. Moore Avenue and 21st Street.

The man, whom she had seen earlier at the club, offered her $10 for sex, according to the arrest warrant for Fabian. Madison refused.

"She began walking away from him when he punched her in the mouth, knocking her to the ground," the warrant states. "The male then dragged the complainant to a bench . . . where he raped her."

Police took Madison to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she was given a rape exam and an anti-pregnancy pill and treated for a blow to the mouth that had knocked out four of her front teeth.

Investigator Roscoe Cofield of the sex-crimes unit interviewed her at the hospital. According to his investigative report from 1995, Madison gave him a detailed description of her assailant and his nickname - "Wild Bill."

Cofield soon closed his investigation. In his report, he said he had been unable to reach Madison for a follow-up interview. She did not have a phone.

Cofield, now 56 and retired, said late last year that he did the best he could, given his workload and the difficulty of finding Madison.

"What am I going to do?" he said. "I can't track her down."

Inquirer reporters quickly found Madison last year after learning of her case during an examination of the sex-crimes unit's performance. Reporters left business cards at stores that she frequents, and she phoned them a week later. Madison gave The Inquirer permission to identify her by name.

Madison told reporters last week that the newly assigned detectives found her "like you all did" - by putting out word in her neighborhood that they wanted to talk to her.

When the detectives interviewed her on Feb. 18, Madison told them she had since learned the full name of her assailant. She said she saw the man about six months after the attack, at the same after-hours club, and pointed him to out to a friend. The friend, Curtis Greene, knew the man by name, Madison said.

Next, the detectives found Greene, 41, who told them that Fabian was the man Madison had seen in the bar. Greene said he and Fabian had attended the same middle school.

Police arrested Fabian on March 4 and charged him with the five-year-old rape. The Police Department did not make the arrest public. The Inquirer learned of it last week from records of Fabian's court appearance.

At the time of his arrest, Fabian was on parole for a robbery conviction.

In May 1996 - 10 months after the assault on Madison - Fabian was arrested and charged in another sexual assault. Police said he commandeered a car at knifepoint at a traffic light in North Philadelphia and groped the driver. Prosecutors later withdrew the charges.

Madison said she was ready to testify against Fabian.

"I'm just glad they got him," she said. "He could have killed me, left me there dead. And gotten away with it."