A 60-year-old California prisoner was extradited to Broward County to face charges in the decades-old Deerfield Beach case.
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL — Advances in DNA testing have led to the arrest of a man accused of sexually assaulting an 85-year-old woman inside her Deerfield Beach apartment nearly four decades ago, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Gregory Russell Rollison, 60, was extradited from California to Broward County on Sunday, authorities said. He faces two counts of sexual battery and one count of armed burglary of a dwelling in connection with the July 16, 1987, attack. The charges are allegations, and court records reviewed in news reports did not indicate that Rollison had entered a plea.
The attack occurred about 2 a.m. at an apartment building in the 300 block of North Federal Highway, investigators said. A man scaled the side of the building and tried to enter one apartment before reaching the victim’s enclosed balcony and entering her home through a sliding door.
The woman was asleep when the intruder restrained her and sexually assaulted her twice at knifepoint, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators said he also took belongings from the apartment before fleeing. CBS News Miami reported that $25 was taken from the woman’s purse. The victim was unable to positively identify the attacker.
Detectives identified Rollison as a possible suspect after another violent attack with similar circumstances occurred about 10 days later and several miles away, authorities said. Investigators had evidence collected through a sexual assault examination, but the forensic technology available at the time did not provide enough information to support charges. Authorities have not said that Rollison is charged in the later attack.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office took over the investigation in 1990. Detective Andrew Gianino, who had responded to the original scene while serving with the Deerfield Beach Police Department, continued to follow the case. The victim later died without seeing anyone charged in the attack.
As forensic methods improved, evidence from the case was submitted for additional testing. Analysts developed a DNA profile that investigators said matched Rollison. The sheriff’s office has not publicly detailed the testing method, when the match was confirmed or how the comparison sample was obtained.
“In a case like this where I was on scene in 1987 and physically met the victim, and now all these years later she’s passed away, it feels like it went full circle,” Gianino said in a statement released by the sheriff’s office. He said the result showed that preserved DNA evidence can provide investigators with another opportunity as technology advances.
Rollison was serving a nine-year sentence in California for attempted murder of a law enforcement officer when Broward investigators linked him to the Deerfield Beach case, authorities said. California officials transferred him to Florida, and he was booked at the North Broward Bureau in Pompano Beach.
Rollison’s bond in the Broward County case was set at $130,000, according to Local 10. Information about his legal representation and his next scheduled court appearance had not been publicly released as of Tuesday.
Author note: Last updated August 4, 2026.