A former Florida cop, accused of raping a six-year-old girl in the 1991, was arrested Friday in Alaska after being on the run for more than two decades.
Federal agents took 60-year-old Joseph Keenan May into custody at his Eagle River, Ala., home. May had been living under the identity of his step-brother, Michael Camp, for more than 20 years. Camp had died in his teens in the 1970s.
Authorities said that May got Camp's Social Security number before fleeing to Alaska from Florida in the early 1990s, reports The Anchorage Daily News. Under Camp's identity, May applied for an Alaska driver's license and also applied for unemployment insurance benefits in the state.
May, who was born in Mississippi, shifted to Florida. He joined as a deputy sheriff and road patrol deputy from 1988 through 1990 in the state. The arrest documents state that between 1970 and 1977 May raped the 6-year-old multiple times and at multiple locations in Manatee County, according to The Bradenton Herald.
The Florida police report shows that May confessed to oral sex and told investigators that he fondled the victim. But he denied having intercourse. He was arrested in 1990 in Florida and he remained in jail for a few months before getting out on bail. He escaped from Florida before his March 1991 trial on capital sexual battery charges.
May now faces two counts of unlawful use of a social security number and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The chances of him getting bail are dim due to his history of fleeing.
During a court hearing in Anchorage, May appeared handcuffed hours later on a warrant issued in 1993 for Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution for capital sexual battery, reports the New York Daily News. He might be sentenced to 12 years in jail for federal charges of unlawful use of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.
After being extradited to Florida to face child rape charges, he might get death penalty.
