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# Rape victims seek answers
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/rape-victims-seek-answers/
- Published: 2001-12-11T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T22:31:10.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Woman learns that she ID’d ‘southside rapist’ weeks after rape*

A local woman who was raped six years ago and feels let down by police will ask the Santa Monica City Council tonight what it has done to improve rape investigations within the city.

Karen Pomer’s request to speak in front of city council was instigated by some startling news she learned recently — she had identified her rapist in a police line-up but investigators never followed up on it.

Six weeks after her Oct. 4, 1995 rape, Pomer identified Israel Hardin as a possible suspect but it wasn’t until four years later that he was charged with her rape and several others, including that of an 82-year-old woman, which occurred just three months after Pomer’s.

Pomer now realizes that perhaps the elderly woman’s rape could have been prevented had the police followed up on her lead.

“That woman has now become my friend,” Pomer said Monday. “Now I find out that it didn’t have to happen.”

In a letter addressed to council members dated October 19, 2001, Pomer said: “Just two weeks ago, my

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 11, 2001.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121101.pdf?ref=smdp.com)