Community Expresses Relief Over Arrest of Child-Rape Suspect : Pacoima: Robert Lee Donaldson, 34, appears in court to answer charges that he attacked three children.

PACOIMA — Parents frightened by a series of child rapes breathed a sigh of relief at news that a suspect was in custody Thursday, then got back to some of their older worries--drugs, gangs and gunfire.

“To tell you the truth, I’ve always been afraid for my children, for drugs, gangs, everything else,” said Ramona Alvarado, who waited for her two daughters in front of Hillery T. Broadous Elementary School on Filmore Street.

“For now, I’m happy,” said Alvarado. “But in reality, you never know. The gangs shoot up the place, and they can get hit by a bullet. They caught this guy, so I’m not afraid of him. But you always have to fear something.”

By the time Alvarado had her children home, Robert Lee Donaldson, 34, was appearing in criminal court in San Fernando, where a court commissioner postponed his arraignment until Monday.

Donaldson said nothing more than “yeah,” to three questions, before Commissioner Michael L. Brand sent him back to jail without bail.

He faces 19 felony charges in the rapes of three children, two of whom were attacked as they walked to Broadous. A third was attacked en route to a bus stop.

The district attorney’s office plans to amend its complaint against Donaldson to include sexual assault and attempted kidnaping charges, stemming from two other incidents in Inglewood, where Donaldson was arrested Wednesday, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacquelyn Lacey.

Authorities say Donaldson had been stalking a young girl near an Inglewood school when undercover officers confronted him and chased him down. He is expected to be charged with the Oct. 11 sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl and the Oct. 18 attempted kidnaping of a 9-year-old. Both attacks occurred in the vicinity of a campus that includes Morningside High School, Clyde Woodworth Elementary School and Albert Monroe Junior High School.

Detectives took blood and saliva samples from Donaldson and will request that he submit to an HIV test, said Lacey. Both actions are considered standard procedure, she said.

Pacoima now will have to nurse a bruised reputation, said Ray Jackson, a neighborhood activist and longtime resident.

“The more we work to improve the name of Pacoima, it seems like something else happens to give us a black eye,” said Jackson.

Parents and school officials just want to get back to the business of raising and educating children outside of the media spotlight, said Kathy O’Driscoll, assistant principal of Broadous.

“It was a terrible thing that happened,” said O’Driscoll. “They don’t want any more notoriety.”

O’Driscoll said she told children about Donaldson’s capture, but warned them to continue walking together and shying away from strangers.

Parked outside in his red pickup truck, Fidencio Palomera weighed tough options common to this working-class neighborhood.

With slow times in the construction business, Palomera can spare the time to pick up his son and daughter, he said. But he also has to provide them with food and shelter.

“You have to teach them to be careful,” he said. “But I have to work. I can’t watch them all the time.”