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Girl allegedly sexually assaulted near Lancaster school, suspect caught

by Luis Meza and M. Dilworth • May 7, 2015

It took several deputies and a Taser to restrain and place 41-year-old Joseph Cornett into custody in connection with an alleged sexually assault in Lancaster Wednesday, May 6. He was booked at the Lancaster Station jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. (Photo by LUIS MEZA)
It took several deputies and a Taser to restrain and place 41-year-old Joseph Cornett into custody following an alleged sexual assault in Lancaster Wednesday, May 6. He was booked at the Lancaster Station jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. (Photo by LUIS MEZA)

LANCASTER – A 41-year-old man was arrested Wednesday afternoon for allegedly luring a girl into his car by posing as law enforcement and then sexually assaulting the girl in an abandoned mobile classroom across the street from Lancaster Baptist School, authorities said.

Joseph Cornett was captured after his vehicle got stuck in the desert about 300 yards away from where the alleged assault took place, according to Sgt. Brian Hudson of the Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau. Hudson said the attack occurred sometime between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 6.

The victim was allegedly sexually assaulted in an abandoned mobile classroom on a lot in the 4000 block of East Lancaster Boulevard, officials said. (LUIS MEZA)
The victim was allegedly sexually assaulted in an abandoned mobile classroom on a lot in the 4000 block of East Lancaster Boulevard, officials said.

“A 15-year-old female was walking in the area of 20th Street East and Avenue J when the suspect drove up to her in a vehicle. He made statements to her that made her believe that he might be a law enforcement official,” Hudson said. “He coerced her into getting into his vehicle under the guise that he was going to give her a ride home.”

The assailant instead drove the victim to a lot in the 4000 block of East Lancaster Boulevard where there are several abandoned mobile classrooms, according to Hudson.

The victim broke free and ran into the parking lot of Lancaster Baptist School for help. (LUIS MEZA)
The victim broke free and ran into the parking lot of Lancaster Baptist School for help. The assailant chased the victim into the parking lot and then he fled in his vehicle by driving into the desert, officials said. (LUIS MEZA)

“He took her into one of the trailers where he sexually assaulted her,” Hudson said. “During the course of the assault she managed to break free and run into the parking lot of Lancaster Baptist. She basically ran up to people that were leaving the parking lot and she was able to have them summon help for her.”

Hudson said the assailant first chased the victim into the parking lot, but then he retreated to his vehicle and tried to escape by driving through the desert.

“He got about 300 yards away from where the assault took place and then his car got stuck,” Hudson said. “That’s where responding deputies from Lancaster Station took him into custody – while he was still in his vehicle in the desert.”

The vehicle, which had a North Carolina license plate, got stuck in the desert about 300 yards away from where the alleged assault took place, officials said. (LUIS MEZA)
The vehicle, which had a North Carolina license plate, got stuck in the desert about 300 yards away from where the alleged assault took place, officials said. (LUIS MEZA)

Cornett resisted arrest, and deputies had to use a Taser to subdue him, according to a Lancaster Sheriff’s Station crime broadcast.

The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

“It was very fortunate that she was able to break free and summon these Good Samaritans to come to her aid,” Hudson said, adding that it was the Good Samaritans who directed deputies to Cornett’s location.

–

Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

37 comments for "Girl allegedly sexually assaulted near Lancaster school, suspect caught"

  1. Rankin says

    May 8, 2015 at 10:25 am

    Abandoned mobile classroom—– who owns(Ed) them? Any responsibility here? Anything else going on at this site?.

    • David says

      May 9, 2015 at 7:14 pm

      It’s not the class rooms fault that that pos did what he did

    • David says

      May 9, 2015 at 7:21 pm

      And the lancaster Baptist church owns the land….Rankin you make me wonder if your [removed]….you are going to blame it on empty church property instead of the person who kidnapped some little girl and raped her knowing he is HIV positive….I hope you [remove] we do not need any more of you around

  2. Cali Palmdale says

    May 8, 2015 at 10:25 am

    SSSeeee people cops should have taken this guy out but yeah forgot im sure we would of had a bunch of protest might had Jesse Jackson and AL Sharp come out to AV and protest about taking an innocent Soul brothers life come on people most people who get shot by police is for a reason they dint obey the officers commands respect the law play by the rules but still criminals like this don’t need to waste out air should of had a different outcome.

    • evan says

      May 8, 2015 at 10:46 am

      Taken him down huh? The police pulled this off flawlessly by taking him into custody and everyone is entitled to a fair trial. To be honest, it APPEARS he is guilty but who knows? We have very few facts and you are playing some weird race card scenario? Your bloodlust is gross…go educate yourself.

    • hmmmhmmm says

      May 8, 2015 at 2:32 pm

      exactly they get killed by cops for a reason and yes I totally agree with this whole protesting crap. claiming they are innocent they don’t obey the law and than they protest about their poor innocent souls.

  3. Bob says

    May 8, 2015 at 3:48 am

    A minor sexually assaulted in the good old AV??!! How unusual,,, who would of thought such a thing could happen in our sleepy little community.

    • Robert Mulligan says

      May 8, 2015 at 8:23 am

      and don’t forget crime in the AV is down Bob

    • evan says

      May 8, 2015 at 11:01 am

      you tried so hard to sarcasm. fail.

  4. PublicSafetyFirst says

    May 7, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    I want to know when this state will establish greater protections and policies against sex offenders? I’m tired of reading about rights of sex offenders; judges releasing SVPs; judges reducing sentencing; judges dismantling residential restrictions ect . I’m tired of asking for our legislators help only to denied because a large segment of Democrats value greater sex offenders than the rest of us! Stuff your cruel and unusual punishment stance that a life sentence would be “unfair” or that civil commitment be indefinite with no chance of release. THERE IS NO CURE AND IT IS WRONG TO GAMBLE WITH THE LIVES OF THE PUBLIC! You know who will never have a sex offender for a neighbor: our judges, politicians, ACLU lobbyists, the psychologists advocating for release of SVPs. They all have the money to buy themselves a buffer away from these monsters. We are that buffer for them and it is our children made to be their prey! It is all too easy to sit up on that judges bench; on the state capital with that self-righteous act of purported advocacy for “civil rights.” WHAT ABOUT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS?! Democrats allege to be the party of the working class/average joe…but it is this very class that disproportionately will be subjected to the release and placement of sex offenders. Too many Democrats are more concerned that sex offenders have housing; they want to remove sex offenders names from the registry through a “tiering system” so you don’t have a chance to be forewarned and not let that sex offender neighbor into your social circle. The justification for this is “they have done their time.” As if this should remove your concerns (and they do want to deny you the right and legitimacy of your concerns). We can’t compare property theft to rape, yet the extreme left does by comparing recidivism rates of property crimes to rape asserting that recidivism of rapists are less. Again, so wrong to compare, but this comparison also wholly ignores that rape is the most under-reported crime with only 15% of adult rapes reported and only 12% of child rapes reported. (See CASex Offender Management Board Reports) Yet, when we ask for help we are denied. Don’t worry though we have the assertions of Chairman Quirk of the Assembly Public Safety Committee that there is nothing wrong with the release of SVPs and that our community is safe enough. Funny that he is an expert in our area when he is up in the 20th District(Hayward/Union)? He obviously knows more about us than we do. If you do not feel safe call him and respectfully ask him to support legislation that will protect our community from the placement of SVPs and sex offenders in general:(916) 319-2020; or call the Assembly Public Safety Committee and ask for better protections against SVPs and sex offenders:(916) 319-3744. We need legislation for our families and we can’t stop insisting that we both need it and have a right to it!

    • Jo says

      May 8, 2015 at 8:44 am

      Public execution would be a GREAT deterrent..I think we should bring it back for rapists and child molesters.

    • factsnothysteria says

      May 8, 2015 at 10:23 pm

      Funny you should mention the California Sex Offender Management Board and its findings…. a major one of which is

      “About 95% of solved sex crimes are committed by individuals never previously identified as sex offenders and so not registered.” appears to be the case here….

      and “Approximately 93% of sex offenses against children are committed by persons known to the victim, not by “strangers.” – not the case here but still a valid finding.
      http://www.cce.csus.edu/portal/admin/handouts/Tiering%20Background%20Paper%20FINAL%20FINAL%204-2-14.pdf

      and “Effective policy must be based on the scientific evidence. Research on sex offender risk and recidivism now has created a body of evidence which offers little justification for continuing the current registration system since it does not effectively serve public safety interests.
      http://www.cce.csus.edu/portal/admin/handouts/CASOMB_End_of_Year_Report_to_Legislature_2014.pdf

      The rest of your rant is kind of white noise. The facts are the facts.

  5. jerusha mcdonald says

    May 7, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    Regardless of if the person was in a red car a black and white car or any color at that they DO NOT teach u in school that if a surposed ” police officer or anything with authority” dosent look like it is what it to not go up to it. Saying that this girl has no common sense is wrong . What if God forbid it was your child . Is that what you would tell them as they told you the story as their crying scared and not understanding what had just happened and why. If this little girl was running down the street naked that dosent even give anybody the right to touch her . That’s wrong . Your like saying it’s the girls fault we have sico s out here and since she didn’t have common sense it’s her fault. That’s horrible.

  6. lilibelle says

    May 7, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    this is a sad story but then again why would this girl just jump into some ones car with out knowing who it is. regardless if he is a police or not she should of used common sense and don’t be fast at jumping into some ones car. Parents refresh your kids brains and teach them not to jump into strangers cars its better to walk the extra mile than to have some criminal do something to them.

    • Ayn R. Key says

      May 7, 2015 at 3:44 pm

      He impersonated a cop, and as recent news stories have shown us anything other than complete obeisance is an excuse for “street justice”. Had he been a real cop and had she refused to comply, this would have been an article about another 300 lb cop fearing for his life and shooting a 100 lb teenage girl.

      • kiki says

        May 7, 2015 at 3:59 pm

        really no way a cop in a red car and no uniform nonsense. pure ignorance

        • Ayn R. Key says

          May 7, 2015 at 5:34 pm

          Right, because cops never go under cover or plain clothes.

        • Mike B. says

          May 7, 2015 at 11:02 pm

          Ignorance? Wow, I wonder if you would be screaming that into your daughter’s face if it happened to her.

        • Lee s says

          May 8, 2015 at 6:32 am

          Anyone who refers to a 15 year Child as ignorant
          needs to take a look at themselves

          • LB8 says

            May 11, 2015 at 12:35 pm

            I agree with this, for someone to call a 15 year child Stupid due to the issues really need to look at there self in mirror. And pray that this would never happen to your child, and if you were in that child or parent shoes how would feel. Just saying.

  7. no name says

    May 7, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    This is a young girl your all talking about.have alittle respect.This will mess with her for the rest of her life.Parents need to refresh their childern on this subject.

    • Maria says

      May 8, 2015 at 12:33 pm

      Very true! Thank you.

      • tina says

        May 20, 2015 at 12:35 pm

        Okay now…. she is 15 years old she should have known better than that…. y whould a officer offer her a ride home because she jaywalked…. n look at him who in they right mind whould think he is a cop… I pray for her n hope she is okay but its something about this that’s not right… who im I to judge only her him n God really know what happened n I hope he get everything coming to him because he was wrong for that…and parents please talk too ur kids n let them know they can’t be hoping in just anybody’s car no matter what they say r who they pretend to be….

  8. Deandre says

    May 7, 2015 at 11:53 am

    The world is full off ignore people most of Which post on this site with stupid comments not all situations require force and majority of the officers in this world know this. However there are four sides to a story suspects side, officers side media side and the truth. Unfortunately the world is trained to take what the media spews out as truth when majority of the time it is twisted to suit ratings. journalist are the modern day lawyers. Nothing but snakes in the grass waiting to strike.

    COMMIT THE CRIME AND FIGHT THE POLICE EXPECT THE VERY WORSE BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU WILL GET. BLACK WHITE YELLOW BROWN BLUE PINK PURPLE ETC. IT’S NOT A RACE THING IT IS AN IGNORANT CRIMINAL THING!!!!!

    • lmao says

      May 7, 2015 at 1:13 pm

      …. Sorry I couldn’t get pass the first sentence. I think you meant to say -ignorant …..

  9. satan says

    May 7, 2015 at 11:40 am

    Hahaha is that Ruben perales the EMT guy pulling him hahahah screw that kid he’s crybabyhahahaha no one ever liked him in fire so now he’s amr haaa a joke and tell him how’s his girl not at vans store anymore hahaha she use to meet me in the parking lot at the mall how my weenie taste when you kiss her lame lolhave a good one amr crybaby oedo ruben

    • Jessica says

      May 7, 2015 at 1:09 pm

      Dude srsly. All u can say about this is [removed] talking the emt. Bro get a [removed] life. Maybe your ass needs to go back to school cause you can’t even spell correctly to be insulting. Are you like 15? Let’s be real. Your probably jealous he was with that girl and you can only dream about how much you wanted your [removed] in her mouth.
      A girl got sexual assaulted and your concern is the emt crying. You’re sir are a retard.

      • Grammar police says

        May 7, 2015 at 1:45 pm

        Jessica, you might want to check your grammar and spelling before correcting someone else. Get some ice for that burn.

        • Caitlin says

          May 7, 2015 at 3:51 pm

          Really? Go away Grammar Police. No one cares. This isn’t an article to argue over, a girl is scarred for the rest of her life and all you can worry about is other people’s grammar?

          • Jessica says

            May 8, 2015 at 3:42 pm

            Thank you Caitlin.

    • Angel says

      May 7, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      Big words from someone hiding behind a keyboard that you can’t even operate.

    • Say what? says

      May 7, 2015 at 3:46 pm

      satan you have now reached child level 10

  10. MARK says

    May 7, 2015 at 11:08 am

    should of used the Taser with the bullet in it. scum bag

    • Me says

      May 7, 2015 at 11:17 am

      He’ll yea….and how is he not dead? Folks are getting killed for running but when the real hit the fan they get to live to have their day in court…wow

      • noname says

        May 7, 2015 at 11:21 am

        Because we live in a time where the police are in fear of taking a suspect down because of his skin color.

        • bush did 911 says

          May 7, 2015 at 11:45 am

          [removed] skin color this is rape theres never excuse for rape i dont care what ethnicity you are.

          • Someone will scream says

            May 7, 2015 at 3:47 pm

            He didnt do nuffin, I can Rev. Al Sharpton now screaming /s

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