Germantown man pleads guilty to rape

A Germantown man pleaded guilty yesterday to the early-morning rape in November of a deaf woman on her way to work at a nursing home.

Clarence Moore, 24, changed his mind and pleaded guilty after Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Dempsey denied his attorney's motion to prevent the prosecutor from using a statement he gave to police admitting the crime.

Assistant District Attorney Eileen Hurley said Moore would be sentenced Oct. 22 on his guilty plea to charges of rape, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person.

Officials said that about 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 14, Moore began following the 44-year-old woman as she walked to her housekeeping job at a nursing home on West School House Lane in Germantown.

Hurley said the woman tried to shoo away Moore by indicating that she is deaf and cannot speak. As the woman neared the employee entrance to the nursing home, Moore pushed her to the ground and assaulted her, Hurley said.

The noise of other employees arriving apparently scared Moore and he ran off down the driveway, narrowly avoiding being hit by a bus.

Later, Hurley continued, two 14th Police District patrol officers, Lisa Gauthney and Cynthia Frye, noticed that the description of the rapist - including his red Phillies hooded sweatshirt - resembled Moore, whom they had stopped and questioned an hour before the rape as he knocked on doors in the 300 block of East Haines Street.

Moore told the officers he was looking for his daughter and gave a home address on Germantown Avenue that turned out to be vacant. Hurley said police then had NFL Films enhance a nursing-home surveillance video, enabling the victim and officers to identify Moore.

Two days later, shortly before 6:30 a.m., Gauthney was again on patrol, in the 6100 block of Greene Street, when she spotted Moore accosting a woman. Hurley said Gauthney stopped and detained Moore for questioning.

Moore initially told officers that the sex with the nursing-home worker was consensual, but later gave statements to detectives admitting the rape.