A man who was convicted of raping a celebrity in the 1980s and of threatening to kill two former presidents is going on trial again, this time on charges of raping two women in Greenwich Village 10 years ago.
Opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday in the trial of Leroy Johnson, 39, who is accused of forcing his way into the home of two women and attacking them at knifepoint on Nov. 18, 1996.
During a hearing Monday, Assistant District Attorney Michele Bayer said Johnson had raped two other women in 1982, when he was 15.
“The second victim has since become famous and has spoken publicly about the case,” she said.
Bayer did not say who the celebrity was, but it has been widely reported that it was Kelly McGillis, who starred in the movie “Top Gun.”
McGillis has spoken publicly about being raped by a 15-year-old assailant in 1982, saying she was in her early 20s and studying acting in New York when two men broke into her apartment and attacked her. She has not identified the attacker and court records in the case do not identify the victim.
In the latest case, Johnson was arrested at his home in May 2005 after a DNA match that was made possible by an advanced test not available at the time of the 1996 crime, prosecutors said. He is charged with robbery, burglary, rape and sodomy.
Johnson has spent much of his life in prison. When he finished a term at Auburn State Prison in December 1991, he was arrested by U.S. marshals after prison employees heard him threatening the lives of two former presidents, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. He was convicted on those charges in November 1992.