Recent sex offender arrested again for sexually assaulting couple
A man who was arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance in Palm Springs on March 1, after someone saw him harassing a young girl and attempting to grab her, was arrested again Thursday morning for allegedly breaking into a home and sexually assaulting a woman and her husband, according to the Palm Springs Police Department.
Check out city-by-city stats of sex offenders living in the Coachella Valley
Officers said 44-year-old Thomas Mabe is also in trouble for failing to register as a sex offender following his March arrest.
His latest charges came after police received a call at 3:30 a.m. from the victim, who lives in the 2700 block of E Mesquite Avenue in Palm Springs, saying a man had broke her window, climbed into her home and physically and sexually assaulted both her, and her husband.
Officers said Mabe was still in the victim’s house as she was talking to police. He was apparently trying to get dressed and lunged at the woman to try and grab the phone from her. Dispatchers heard the woman screaming and saying that the suspect was attacking her.
The woman’s husband was able to pull Mabe off of his wife and pin him down until the Palm Springs Police Department arrived, about six minutes later.
“We are happy that he is in custody and we hope that the charges now will be considered strongly from the courts to keep this dangerous man off the streets,” said Sgt. William Hutchinson with PSPD.
During further investigation, officers learned that Mabe broke a window to the home, entered the residence and sexually assaulted the husband and wife.
Officers arrested Mabe inside the house for the following charges:
Residential Burglary
Violation of Probation
Sexual Assault
Commit Oral Copulation during course of a burglary
Oral copulation while victim asleep
Failure to register as a sex registrant within 30 days
The victims didn’t need medical treatment following the assault.
Officers said Mabe plead guilty to the felony child annoyance case in March. He was placed on probation for that incident and released from jail on March 19th. He was also in trouble for violating his probation at the time of the March arrest. The judge sentenced Mabe to 90 days but he only served one day behind bars.
With a long string of prior convictions some people believe more could have been done to keep Mabe locked up.
“This whole judicial system needs to be reworked, it’s wrong. With the police doing what they have to do to arrest these people and the courts let them out the next day, you know it’s wrong,” said Vicki Jerman of Palm Springs.
