Agents find weapons at home

Sex offender Jonathan Stankowitz, accused of raping a woman in his tow truck last week, is back behind bars after probation agents found a stun gun, a baton, an 8-inch dagger and other weapons at his North Charleston home, authorities said.

Probation agents discovered the items, along with a can of Mace, 33 rounds of ammunition and five other knives, during a search of Stankowitz's Firestone Road property on Friday, according to an arrest warrant. The search came a day after he was released from jail after posting $125,000 bail in the Charleston rape case.

Agents hauled Stankowitz, 34, back to the county detention center and charged him with violating the terms of his probation, which bar the two-time convicted sex offender from possessing weapons, according to the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. He remained in custody late Tuesday, with bail set at $100,000.

Stankowitz runs Coastal Towing out of his home, working as a solo truck operator who searches the Charleston area for business, authorities said. He also has worked as a "repo" man and a bounty hunter in the past, according to court documents. It remains unclear whether the weapons are somehow connected to one of his lines of work.

Stankowitz is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman on Feb. 7 after offering to tow her car from a Meeting Street convenience store so she wouldn't have to drive after drinking, according to a police report. The woman told police she was attacked in the tow truck at a James Island shopping center.

Stankowitz is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct in that case. He also is charged with violating his probation by failing to notify his supervising agent of his arrest, failing to pay court-ordered supervision fees and failing to follow his agent's instructions, according to an arrest warrant.

Stankowitz was placed on "intensive probation" following his 2007 convictions for committing a lewd act on a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He pleaded guilty to fondling a 13-year-old girl and showing a pornographic movie to a 13-year-old boy, court records show.

Stankowitz had previously pleaded guilty in 2002 to peeping through the windows of a 32-year-old woman's home on Sarah Street in Charleston, state records show.

Intensive probation is the highest level of community supervision, requiring offenders to submit to weekly visits with their supervising agent, as well as frequent home visits.

On Friday, agents found a police-

style baton, a stun gun and a fixed-blade knife in a camper trailer on the property. Stankowitz acknowledged the weapons were his, as he did with a folding knife and Mace found in a his vehicle, according to an arrest warrant. He denied owning four more knives, a BB pistol and nearly three dozen rounds of .45-caliber ammunition found in the camper trailer and a separate trailer on the property, the warrant stated.

Reach Glenn Smith at 37-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.