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The homeless man who attacked and tried to rape a woman in Prospect Park on Tuesday was held on $500,000 bail yesterday. One of Bernie Hogan's victims, Laura Medina who was groped on a Brooklyn street by him, spoke at the hearing, saying, "He is repeating it and he obviously doesn't care at all."
The prosecutor told the Post that the Prospect Park victim's head was bruised, she suffered massive blood loss, loss of consciousness and a broken jaw. The woman, a 33 year-old fashion designer, is recovering at King's County Hospital. Additionally, the criminal complaint says "Hogan punched the woman 12 times, tried to pull her pants down and said he was going to rape her." One of Hogan's relatives said, "He wasn't trying to rape her. He was trying to rob her." As if that makes the situation any less reprehensible.
The Times looks at Bernie Hogan's record.
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The Times also reported that she is now blind in one eye after having it punched twelve times. Post columnist Andrea Peyser say that Brooklyn residents nearby feel that had this happened in Central Park or even Union Square Park for that matter, it would have provoked outrage and a stepped-up police response. In Brooklyn, she says "At noon yesterday, exactly 24 hours after the crime, just a single, lonely cop car sat soggy vigil inside the park's columned Third Street entrance, inches from the scene of the already nearly forgotten attack." The Post sees a "bleak prospect for besieged Brooklynites."
It's enough to make you wish NY had one of those "three strikes and you're out" laws like CA. This is one case where locking him up for the rest of his life seems like a good idea.
I know, it's crazy that people do slip through the system. I really don't like to be ultra militant, but when I hear these stories, coupled with my growing belief that sometimes it is the small things (groping, petty theft) that lead to bigger crimes, a three strikes law sounds good.