By LEONARD GRAY

LAPLACE – The 31-year-old LaPlace man booked July 15 with the aggravated rape of a mentally disabled teen-ager has a history of similar allegations. According to court records, Terrell Williams has allegations of sex crimes dating back to the summer of 1993.

Williams, then living on South Fig Street in Garyville, was charged with the sexual battery of one under-aged LaPlace girl on Feb. 4, 1995, and the forcible rape of a second on June 20, 1993. The girls, each under the age of 15, did not reveal the circumstances to their mother for at least two years. He was arrested on warrants on Aug. 13, 1997 for the two incidents.

The earlier cases came up during the prosecution of Williams for the June 18, 1996 sexual battery of a 9-year-old Reserve girl. Prosecutor Charles Lorio subpoenaed the two earlier victims, whose cases had not yet come to trial, intending to demonstrate a pattern to the jury.

The case wound its way through the court system and trial dates were set again and again. Finally, a trial date was set Nov. 3, 1998 before 40th Judicial District Judge Madeline Jasmine.

On that date, rather than face trial, Williams accepted the terms of a plea agreement, where the original charge of aggravated rape was reduced to sexual battery, he would accept a 10-year prison term without benefit of probation or parole, minus 17 months of pre-trial incarceration. The District Attorney’s Office agreed not to prosecute the two earlier cases as part of the agreement.

“I was all ready to go to trial when he called me and told me he was taking the deal,” said his court-appointed defense attorney in that case, Richard Stricks.

Williams’ claim all along was that he never raped her, but admitted to stroking her genital area as she lay asleep. However, despite the 10-year sentence, he was back on the street, legally released, by March of this year.

According to Stricks, Williams took advantage of the “good time” rule, where an inmate could be released in half the time of his sentence, provided he remained on good behavior.

Lorio said that in 1999, the law was changed by the legislature so that sex offenders were not eligible for early release.

Capt. Michael Tregre of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office, said Williams’ latest arrest is the second time Williams has faced an aggravated rape charge.

This latest crime involves a 17-year-old Kenner girl diagnosed at 2 years old with Lennox-Gaustaut Syndrome. The degenerative brain disease leaves the girl with a mental capacity of a 12-year-old and a diminished sense of right and wrong, according to Tregre.

Tregre said the alleged victim was walking along Airport Access Road in Kenner on July 14 at 5:11 p.m., headed for a friend’s trailer residence south of Louis Armstrong International Airport, when a car pulled alongside and the driver offered the girl a lift. Before she realized it, they were passing over the Bonnet Carre Spillway bridge on Airline Drive.

The teen-ager said she was taken to a residence in Cambridge Subdivision in LaPlace, where she was undressed and raped. Afterward, the perpetrator drove her to Kenner to her intended destination, from where she called her mother.

The alleged victim was able to describe for investigators the vehicle, even to the license plate number, and the house, inside and out, of the perpetrator, according to Tregre.

Williams was arrested Monday night, based on that information provided by the teen-ager.

Williams’ bond was set at $175,000.

He is being held in the Lt. Sherman Walker Correctional Center.