UPDATED: Ex-probation officer serial rapist sentenced for 1995 Glendora crime

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GLENDORA — A former probation officer serving time for two rapes was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 1995 kidnapping and rape of a woman in Glendora.
DNA helped solve the cold case and pointed the finger at 53-year-old Earnest Pettway, formerly of Pasadena.
Glendora police Lt. Brian Summers said Pettway took a plea deal and was sentenced by a Pomona Superior Court judge on May 15.
Summers said the 15 years will be served consecutively with Pettway’s prior sentences of 25 and 46 years for similar crimes in Santa Monica and Los Angeles.
The Glendora assault happened July of 1995 as a 30-year-old woman was cleaning the offices of the National Hot Rod Association, 2035 E. Financial Way, police said.
“Just after midnight, as she was exiting the building, the suspect appeared out of the bushes with a handgun and ordered the victim to undress,” Glendora police said in a written statement.
After the attack, Summers said the woman drove home and called police immediately.
Detectives were left with few clues to follow until 15 years later, when DNA provided them with a break in the case.
“In September of 2010, Glendora police detectives received notification from CHOP, the Cold Hit Outcome Program that a DNA match to suspect Pettway was found after running cold case DNA through the state data bank,” Glendora police said in a written statement. “Glendora detectives re-opened the 15 year old case, interviewing the suspect in prison.
“Pettway denied being involved, however a comparison DNA sample obtained by Glendora detectives from Pettway was an exact match to the evidence collected from the sexual assault in 1995,” the police statement said.
Summers said Pettway was convicted of the Santa Monica and Los Angeles cases in 1997.
Pettway had worked as a Los Angeles County probation officers for 11 years prior to his arrest for raping a female jogger at gunpoint in Santa Monica in November of 1995, according to a report published at the time by the Los Angeles Times. He had spent his last four years as a probation officer at a juvenile camp in Santa Monica.
Detectives subsequently linked Pettway to a similar attack in Los Angeles.
 Ruby Gonzales and Brian Day
PHOTO of Earnest Pettway courtesy of the Glendora Police Department
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