Decades-Old DNA Evidence Leads to Arrest of 70-Year-Old Serial Rapist, Baltimore County Police Say
But State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger has faced persistent criticism over his office's handling of rape cases.
By Gary Gately
Baltimore County detectives’ super-sleuthing, with the help of DNA dating back as long as 45 years ago, has led to the arrest of a 70-year-old serial rapist, police say.
James William Shipe Sr. of Parkville was being held without bond Wednesday evening at the Baltimore County Detention Center in connection with the rapes of five women from 1978-1986, according to charging documents.
Shipe -- who police said broke into the first-floor apartments of the Cockeysville-area women, then sexually assaulted them -- has been charged with five counts of first-degree rape, five counts of first-degree burgary and one count of committing a perverted practice.
“While we know today’s arrest cannot erase the harm Shipe inflicted upon the survivors, the Baltimore County Police Department has removed a dangerous threat from our communities,” Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in a statement. “Our commitment to all the survivors of sexual assault remains steadfast as the investigation into these crimes continues. We thank our many partners who have assisted in this ongoing effort.”
Patrick R. Siedel, Shipe’s attorney, declined comment Wednesday.
The cold case finally yielded an arrest, police say, as a result of a now-deceased former Greater Baltimore Medical Center physician’s having collected samples of semen and bodily fluids from sexual assault victims he treated beginning in 1978.
The evidence, collected by Dr. Rudiger Brietenecke on microscopic slides a decade before investigators began relying on DNA testing in rape cases, proved invaluable in cracking the case. GBMC praised the late physician’s “revolutionary” foresight in preserving such critical evidence.
But Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger has been dogged by repeated criticism for years over his office’s handling of rape cases.
For exmple, a 2016 BuzzfeedNews report based on an analysis of FBI statistics revealed “an alarming record of dismissing rape cases,” as the publication put it. In Baltimore County, as well as in some other jurisdictions, BuzzFeed said, “an extraordinary percentage of rape allegations as false or baseless — ‘unfounded.’”
The criticism has persisted, and in February 2022, the daily newsletter Baltimore County Watch asked in a headline: “What Is Baltimore County Prosecutor Scott Shellenberger Hiding About Sexual Assault Cases?”
Excerpts from the piece:
Previously, we asked whether Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger cares about sexual assault cases, and unearthed several alarming data points showing that he does not.
For example, the county’s elected prosecutor has artificially raised the bar in rape cases, saying that it’s not rape unless the attacker uses some sufficient amount of force (a position contrary to law, according to legal experts); refused to prosecute baseball players alleged to have gang raped two college freshman; and opposed a law to require testing rape kits, undermining his own ability to prove rape cases in court.
That’s damning stuff.
But it gets worse. Scott Shellenberger and the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office apparently do not even keep track of sexual assault cases.
With evidence mounting that Shellenberger cares neither about holding rapists accountable nor protecting rape victims, we wanted to see the big picture that only data can provide. So we asked the office for routine information about how it handles such cases. Basic data like how often it files charges in cases that police present, the rate at which they secure convictions in sexual assault cases, and how often they succeed at trial when cases get that far. We thought it safe to assume that Shellenberger would keep close tabs on such information, if only to prove his critics wrong.
Instead, Deputy State’s Attorney John P. Cox responded with a stunning admission: “this office does not possess any records which would reflect prosecution rates, conviction rates or trial rates of sexual assault cases.”
It is almost as if Scott Shellenberger . . . doesn’t care about sexual assault cases.
Rignal Baldwin V, a Baltimore attorney who represents sexual assault victims, pointed out that in 2019 the State’s Attorney’s Office claimed to have implemented a policy to make a written record of all sexual assaults brought to it for prosecution. But according to prosecutor John P. Cox, at least, that never happened.
“It’s baffling to me that an organization with measurable performance metrics would not track or assess its performance, particularly given recent controversy over how . . . Shellenberger and his prosecutors have fostered a culture where sexual assault victims are denigrated and dismissed,” Baldwin said. “The public should have ready access to this basic information, and such lack of transparency underscores that the State’s Attorney is still not taking sexual assault seriously.”
Shellenberger’s opponent in the state’s attorney race, attorney Robbie Leonard, told Baltimore County Watch that “it is not a surprise that his office does not keep statistics of sexual assault victims,” noting that, as we previously reported, Shellenberger is currently a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging that he attempted to silence a rape victim from pressing charges against her rapists. “How many sexual assault survivors have been treated similarly by Mr. Shellenberger? We don’t know,” Leonard said. If elected, he promised to “track the type of data that was requested and denied by Mr. Shellenberger’s office” because “it is the right thing to do for the brave victims who came forward to report a crime.”
The indifference reflected in Shellenberger’s “baffling” lack of transparency sadly answers the question we raised before, offering further proof that, in Baltimore County, sexual assault cases are at best a low priority. But it also raises a new one—namely, what is Scott Shellenberger hiding?
Consider the growing pressure that Shellenberger faces. National media stories have put a critical spotlight on the county’s treatment of survivors, Shellenberger’s challenger in the state’s attorney race has made sexual assault a key election issue, and victims have filed lawsuits alleging that Shellenberger and others “have intentionally made sexual assaults committed in Baltimore County nearly impossible to prove and prosecute.” If basic data could help quell this controversy, then wouldn’t Shellenberger make sure that it was compiled and released?
“We take the prosecution of sexual assault cases very seriously,” Shellenberger told Baltimore County Watch. “We have a dedicated unit that reviews every case and have Assistant State’s Attorneys assigned to each case early on until completion. We do not keep separate records of specific crimes handled by this office.”
Last October, Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved a $50,000 settlement, to be matched with $50,000 from Baltimore County, to settle the case brought by an alleged sexual assault victim who claimed Shellenberger’s office sent police to the her home to warn her against filing rape charges against three UMBC athletes she said sexually assaulted her in 2017.
Commenting on the settlement, State Treasurer Dereck Davis, one of the board members, said: “The people of Maryland are paying for something that shouldn’t have happened. This is simply a matter of if we just do our jobs, stay in our lane, we would not need to be giving away $50,000 of the people’s money. When you read the details of this settlement, this should not have occurred.”