55-year-old charged with rape of minors

Rapid City, SD (KELO) — A Rapid City man is being held without bail Friday night. Reed Thompson, 55, is accused of drugging and raping four teenage girls.

And according to the Public Prosecution Service, there are many more victims.

According to the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Thompson targeted the most vulnerable teenage girls, including runaways.

Pennington County officials say he gave drugs to four girls, ages 13 to 15, and took advantage of them. In addition to the drug charges, Thompson faces three counts of rape, sexual exploitation of a minor and solicitation of a minor.

This long investigation by the Pennington County Sheriff’s Department was assisted by other departments here in the area, including the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. This six-month investigation all started with a public tip.

The investigation department is satisfied with the cooperation between the local departments during this case.

“This is what we do, and this is a classic example of the investigation team and the police working together to make an arrest in this case,” said Dustin Morrison, head of the PCSO investigation.

The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office believes there are additional victims and would like to assist.

“This is an ongoing thing. As you saw, we have an Internet Crimes Against Children task force and they recently conducted an undercover operation at the Sturgis Rally and they made several arrests,” Morrison said. “This is an ongoing thing, any time we get information, we take it very seriously and we’re going to do everything we can to aggressively pursue and achieve justice for those victims and those families.”

Because Thompson is already a repeat offender, he could face up to life in prison if convicted of these charges.

If you have any information that may assist the investigation department in this case, please contact the Rapid City Police Department.