Man Suspected of Sex Assaults in Four States Arrested
Wednesday, September 25, 2002

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A man wanted in connection with nine sexual attacks on women and children since 1999 in Arizona, California, Nevada and Oklahoma was arrested at a veterans medical clinic.

James Allen Selby, 35, was arrested Tuesday on a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, police Lt. Skip Arms said. He was in jail without bond.

Investigators have said DNA evidence links the five-year Army veteran to sexual assaults in the four states.

In Cleveland County, Okla., he faces charges of rape, sodomy, burglary and kidnapping in the Sept. 16, 1999, assault on a 9-year-old girl. Police said she was pulled out of her bedroom window in the middle of the night and raped in nearby woods.

Selby is wanted in Tucson, Ariz., in three sexual assaults, as well as an attempted assault and a home invasion. He is also under investigation in four sexual assaults in San Diego, and in a sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl in Sparks, Nev.

Oklahoma authorities said Selby has no permanent address and apparently stays with acquaintances or in homeless shelters. He was discharged in 1992 from Fort Carson, which is near Colorado Springs.

He was found at the Veterans Administration clinic after an employee recognized him from a flier.

Authorities had not determined where Selby would be transferred next.