Local News in Brief : Man Pleads No Contest to Sex Assault Charges

A 50-year-old Sepulveda man pleaded no contest Thursday to five charges involving a sexual assault that led to a high-speed motorcycle chase from Santa Clarita to Santa Barbara.

In a plea bargain, Lawrence David Gremminger pleaded no contest to assault with intent to commit rape, forcible oral copulation, and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He had originally also been charged with attempted rape, burglary and two additional counts of assault with intent to commit rape and assault with a deadly weapon.

Sheriff’s deputies said that on March 18, only three hours after Gremminger’s release from jail, where he had been held on suspicion of rape, he knocked on doors in the Sand Canyon area. He asked women whether their husbands were home, telling them his motorcycle had broken down and he needed help.

He shoved his way into the home of a Santa Clarita woman, pulled a gun and forced her to perform oral sex, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer. The woman broke away and ran to a neighbor’s home for help. Gremminger then threatened the woman’s two neighbors, a father and son, who came to the woman’s aid, the prosecutor said.

The men began chasing Gremminger, who fled on his motorcycle toward Granada Hills, where police joined the pursuit, Davis-Springer said.

After a chase on the Ventura Freeway at speeds up to 100 m.p.h., he was arrested when he ran out of gas beside Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara.

Gremminger is to be sentenced Oct. 14. He faces a maximum of 24 years and 4 months in prison.