By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
Feb. 23, 2011

Fifty-three-year-old Bernard Jackson, who’s been charge with committing sexual crimes in the Waldo area, has tacked on more charges to his record.

During a Feb. 16 press conference at the Jackson County Judicial Circuit Courthouse, Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney James Kanatzar said Jackson has now been linked to two more rapes in the Waldo area, which occurred on Sept. 29, 2009, and Jan. 23, 2010.

“We hope that today’s charges, in addition to the cold cases that were filed back in May, will dissipate the fears that have plagued the citizens of our city in the Waldo neighborhood,” Kanatzar said.

Each incident involved separate women and occurred at each woman’s home, Kanatzar said of the Sept. 29 and Jan. 23 attacks.

Jackson’s new charges for the Sept. 29 incident include burglary in the first degree, kidnapping, felonious restraint, forcible sodomy, three counts of forcible rape and one count of sexual abuse.

Charges in the Jan. 23 incident include burglary in the first degree, second degree robbery, kidnapping, felonious restraint, nine counts of forcible sodomy and one count of sexual abuse.

Jackson is currently in jail without bond in connection to four rapes that occurred from 1983 to 1984. For those charges, Jackson is facing the possibility of multiple life sentences.

Five recent attacks from 2009 to 2010, including the s two on Sept. 29, 2009, and Jan 23, 2010, were reported in the Waldo area. At this time, there is not sufficient evidence to charge Jackson in the other three attacks, but he remains a person of interest, Kanatzar said. The investigation is ongoing.

More than 10,000 man hours were spent investigating the Waldo attacks and it’s the largest investigation the Kansas City Police Department has conducted in years, Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin said.

“There were all sorts of resources dedicated to solving this,” Kanatzar said. “There were over 10,000 pages of police reports generated to review. When we were reviewing the modern cases, the defendant was not at large, so we had the luxury of time at looking at these cases from every angle possible…

“It’s a relief to all of us we’ve been able to file these charges.”