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Crime & Safety

'Serial Rapist' Charged With 5th Attack on Teen, Police Say

Latest alleged victim of David Martinez told police she was attacked in January near her home in Freemansburg.

David Martinez, the 20-year-old labeled a “serial rapist” by the Northampton County district attorney, faced a fifth set of charges Thursday in yet another case involving a teenage girl that police said he contacted through Facebook.

The alleged victim in this case contacted police on Feb. 9—three days after District Attorney John Morganelli described Martinez as a possible “serial rapist” and encouraged other victims to come forward.

On Wednesday, Martinez had two new rape charges and associated counts added to his record in two separate arraignments in Bethlehem. Police said both of those victims were 17 and pregnant at the time of the alleged attacks—December 2011 and June 19, 2012. 

A few days before Morganelli’s statement, Martinez was charged with the first two sets of rape counts. He admitted to police he assaulted his victims last year during his first actual encounter with them after meeting them on Facebook, according to court records.

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Martinez, a Bethlehem resident who also told police he has a sex addiction problem, apologized to both girls through police, telling one victim he is trying to become “a follower of Christ,” one arrest affidavit says.

In the latest case, court records say an encounter between Martinez and his alleged victim, 17 at the time, occurred in January near the girl’s Freemansburg home.

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Bethlehem Det. Moses Miller wrote in a criminal complaint that he spoke to the girl at St. Luke’s University Hospital, Anderson Campus. She described a series of events similar to details from the other cases:

  • The girl said she received a Facebook “friend” request from Martinez in December. He sent her a message commenting on photos she posted on her Facebook account, according to the affidavit.
  • She exchanged phone numbers with Martinez and they began to text each other. She said she never met him—her only encounter with him was via Facebook, according to the affidavit.
  • That changed in January, when Martinez picked her up in a white work van at her home, according to the affidavit. They parked down the street. She got into an argument with him, jumped out of the van and began to walk home, according to the affidavit.
  • He pulled up in the van and asked her to get back in. She did and they started talking. He then climbed over the passenger seat and began grabbing her face, trying to get her to kiss him, according to the affidavit.
  • Martinez became “very aggressive,” pulling her sweatshirt as she tried to get out. He began assaulting her, even though she told him to stop and was crying, according to the affidavit.

Martinez, of 421 Maple St. in Bethlehem, was arraigned Thursday morning by District Judge Joseph Barner of Lower Nazareth Township on charges of rape by forcible compulsion, indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sexual assault.

He was returned to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

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