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Hunt For Man In Sex Tape 'Fruitful'

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By KEN RITTER, The Associated Press

Published: October 2, 2007

LAS VEGAS - The fugitive accused of raping a little girl on videotape was portrayed Monday as a knife-wielding survivalist who once vowed never to be taken alive and formerly worked as an animal trainer with Las Vegas illusionists Siegfried & Roy.

The FBI and Las Vegas police pressed a nationwide manhunt for Chester 'Chet' Arthur Stiles, 37, who authorities say can be seen molesting a 3-year-old girl in a video that was recorded four years ago and surfaced last month.

Investigators were interviewing people who know Stiles and pursuing hundreds of 'very fruitful' leads Monday from across the country, said police Capt. Vincent Cannito, head of the police department's youth and family crimes unit.

Authorities were seeking Stiles on an unrelated warrant issued last year charging him with fleeing to avoid prosecution on allegations he groped a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Las Vegas police say Stiles had a string of arrests dating to 1999 on several charges, including assault, battery, resisting a police officer, auto theft, leaving the scene of an accident and contempt of court.

Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said Stiles has claimed to be a former Navy SEAL and a black belt in karate, and claimed to own several guns, including a rifle, shotgun and pistol, but Beckett said he could not confirm any of that.

A spokesman for magicians Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn said Stiles worked as part of an animal training team for Siegfried & Roy for a few months in 2002 at the Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

As for whether he served in the Navy, records suggest he lived in 1989 at a Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla. The Navy and a clerk at a military locator office in St. Louis could not immediately confirm he was in the military.

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