### Rapist Reaffirmed as Sexually Violent Predator After Retrial
Pennsylvania’s Superior Court has upheld Jeffrey Best’s designation as a sexually violent predator (SVP), affirming a brutal 2013 rape conviction tied to DNA evidence years later. The ruling ensures Best, now serving 10-20 years, faces lifelong sex offender registration due to a mental disorder making him prone to predatory attacks. This follows a prior remand for a proper hearing where prosecutors botched evidence admission.
The nightmare began on June 2, 2013, in North Philadelphia when Best, limping from cerebral palsy, propositioned a vulnerable prostitute for $20 near Old York Road. What started as a street deal turned horrific: Best jammed a hard object—likely a gun—into her back, threatening to “blow her brains out” unless she stripped. He dragged her behind an abandoned house, forcing hours of oral, vaginal, and anal rape amid repeated death threats. The victim fled 20 blocks to an ambulance, scarred on her knees, where a rape kit captured DNA that sat unsolved until 2018.
A national DNA database hit linked Best’s voluntary swab to the victim’s body swabs. Detectives re-interviewed her; she ID’d him from photos. Best admitted the encounter but claimed consensual disputes over payment, blaming his disability. A bench trial convicted him of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, terroristic threats, and possessing an instrument of crime. Sentenced in 2022, an initial SVP label was vacated on appeal for evidentiary slip-ups—no formal SOAB report admission or expert testimony—prompting remand.
At the August 2024 redo hearing, psychologist Steven Pflugfelder, Best’s SOAB evaluator, testified under oath. Analyzing factors like offense brutality (isolation, gun threats, excessive multi-hour assault on a stranger), unusual cruelty, and unproven prior rape allegations signaling paraphilic arousal to non-consent, he deemed Best an SVP risk. The trial court agreed by clear-and-convincing evidence: Best’s mental abnormality heightens predatory reoffense likelihood, beyond the crime’s predatory nature.
The Superior Court, reviewing de novo, saw no error. Viewing facts favorably to prosecutors, it credited Pflugfelder’s unchallenged analysis under SORNA statutes—no rigid checklist required, just proof of mental disorder fueling future violence. Best’s appeal flopped; the SVP tag sticks.