Child molester faces assault charges

A former Arizona prison inmate, released from prison last year after serving 17 years for child molestation, is back behind bars on charges he attacked three Las Vegas women over a nine-day period in September.

This time, the charges could put 54-year-old Steven Lee Knight in prison for the rest of his life if he is convicted.

Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry said she will present evidence in the three cases to a Clark County grand jury to force Knight into the familiar setting of a courtroom trial.

Knight stood trial in 1968 in Colorado on attempted sexual assault charges and in 1973 in California on rape charges. He was acquitted in both cases.

In 1978 he was charged with sexual misconduct in Washington, but charges were dropped when the victim refused to testify, according to court records.

In 1981, however, Knight was convicted by an Arizona jury of six counts of child molestation and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He was released in 1998 and came to Nevada apparently to work in the construction industry, Lowry said.

The Nevada charges allege that on Sept. 3, Knight sexually assaulted a 33-year-old Las Vegas woman whom he had given a ride to after her car broke down.

Lowry said Knight stopped at Las Vegas Bar and Liquor, 1617 E. Sahara Ave., with the woman, who said he forced her to have sex with him in the parking lot after telling her he had a knife.

On Sept. 10, Knight is alleged to have driven a 29-year-old woman he met at a bar at Bonanza Road and Lamb Boulevard to a school, where she was to attend an event.

Lowry said that woman charged that Knight showed her a knife and sexually assaulted her in the parking lot of the school.

That woman, Lowry said, managed to note the license number of the red truck with a camper shell driven by her attacker as she fled and flagged down a passing car for help.

According to Lowry, authorities traced the license number to Knight and learned he was a member of the electrical workers union.

But before he could be apprehended, a third woman was attacked in the early morning hours of Sept. 11 as she left Andy Capz Pub, 1631 N. Decatur Blvd.

In this attack, Lowry said, the 49-year-old woman was choked and her purse was stolen.

Although two buttons on the woman's blouse were undone, there was no sexual assault, and she managed to escape and run to the bar for help before she was injured.

At 8 a.m. on Sept. 11, Knight was arrested without incident by a Clark County School District policeman, who had spotted the defendant's truck in the parking lot of the electrical union.

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