Dewaine Thornton Indicted on Charges from Rape Arrest

A man said has been indicted on charges stemming from his arrest in March.

Dewaine Thornton, 53, of Deptford, was indicted by a county grand jury for one count of third-degree resisting arrest and four counts of third-degree aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer for allegedly fighting with police officers who came to arrest him on rape charges at his family’s home on Brookfield Avenue in Deptford on March 20.

When officers arrived at that house, Thornton took off out the back door, West Deptford police said, and ran into a neighbor’s house, where he was caught—but not without a scuffle.

Thornton, who was charged with sexual assault by force or coercion, aggravated assault during the commission of a burglary and aggravated sexual assault with a weapon for the 1992 burglary and rape at Heather Ridge, has yet to be indicted on any of those charges.

Police said he confessed to the crime after his arrest, admitting to police he was high on drugs and looking to steal cash to get more drugs at the time of the burglary.

The file had languished for nearly 20 years before West Deptford Detective Sgt. Michael Cramer spent seven months going back through the file, getting DNA evidence analyzed and eventually charging Thornton.