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Fugitive rapist caught, will be extradited By JILL BRISKEY A Medford rapist who fled the state while a jury was still deliberating his case is in custody and on his way back to Jackson County. By the time a jury found Victor William Geer, 41, guilty of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual assault and furnishing alcohol to a minor in 1998, Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Judi Harper said that Geer had run away to avoid sentencing. FBI officials tracked Geer to Georgia and later West Virginia, but failed to catch him. Geer was finally arrested by authorities in Conway, Ark., during a March 14 traffic stop. A local FBI spokesperson said Geer � who had no identification at the time of his arrest � gave Conway police a phony name. Fingerprints revealed that Geer was indeed the convicted rapist authorities were after. In addition to an FBI arrest warrant, the Jackson County sheriff�s department had issued several warrants charging Geer with failure to appear. Deputy District Attorney Beth Heckert said that once Geer is transported to Jackson County, he will remain jailed while a pre-sentence investigation is conducted. Geer waived his right to an extradition hearing, Heckert added. "It would give us an opportunity to find out what he�s been doing (since his escape)," she said. When the four- to six-week investigation is completed, Heckert said Geer will finally be sentenced, since he has already been convicted. Under Measure 11, Geer�s first-degree rape conviction carries a mandatory sentence of eight years and 4 months; the first-degree sex abuse conviction sentence is six years and three months. Harper, who tried Geer�s case in 1998, said the incident took place in 1996 and involved two 13-year-old local girls. Geer was traveling in the county with a young male relative when they spotted two 13-year-old girls walking along the road. Harper said the boy recognized the girls as his classmates; Geer offered them a ride. "They had never seen the defendant before," Harper said. Before dropping the girls off, Harper said Geer told the girls that he needed to go home first, and drove several miles to a rural cabin in the hills above Jacksonville. "It was a long way out there," Harper said. "(The victims) were just kind of going with the flow. They didn�t know what was going on." Once they arrived, Harper said Geer provided the girls with alcohol, which everybody consumed. "Everybody had too much to drink," Harper said. One girl passed out and Geer sexually assaulted and raped her, Harper said. Harper said the incident wasn�t reported until almost a year later. The former victim had reportedly been having problems, and concerned family members finally discovered the cause. During the trial, Geer maintained his innocence and the defense questioned why the girl had waited so long to report the crime. However, a lack of motive for the girl to lie, the other girl�s testimony and evidence � such as passages in the former victim�s diary � all supported the claim. Harper said Geer, who had posted bail, never returned to the courtroom when the jury was about to announce the verdict. "He was nowhere to be found." Reach reporter Jill Briskey at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.