Charged filed against clown in rape of Calif. girl

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed four felony counts against a professional clown charged with raping a 12-year-old girl nine years ago.

Jose Guadalupe Jimenez is charged with two counts of lewd acts upon a child, a count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and a count of forcible lewd act on a child. The 41-year-old Anaheim man, who is expected to be arraigned later today, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Orange County prosecutors say Jimenez was dressed as a clown when he grabbed a girl at a fast-food stand just before midnight in January 2002, drove to a school parking lot and raped the girl.

Investigators say a DNA sample after his child-abuse arrest in an Anaheim case last year linked him to the rape.