Results tagged “rapist”

Ten years ago Demetrius Edwards pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old Brooklyn girl at gunpoint. According to the justice system, his debt to society has been repaid, so he was recently released from prison and moved into his parents' apartment, about 100 feet from the St. Raphael Elementary School on 37th Street in Queens. It's no surprise parents are panicking, but although Edwards is a sex offender with a record and a "Level Three" status—which means he's at "high risk to commit another sex crime"—nothing in the law prohibits him from living by the school.

The 30-year-old fake livery cab driver who raped one woman, and attempted to rape another last February, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars yesterday. Make that 15 years and 30 days. Torkieh Sadagheh reportedly cried upon hearing his sentence, but when that got him no sympathy, he went the outburst route — which got him an extra month in the slammer for contempt of court.

Police believe that a 69-year-old woman raped in her apartment building at 155th Street and Riverside Drive was attacked by the same man who raped two other women in Hamilton Heights earlier this month. The latest victim was returning home from work at 4 a.m. to 765 Riverside Drive; WCBS 2 reports, "The victim passed mailboxes on her way in through the east entrance of the building. Then [she] proceeded down the stairs to the wood-paneled foyer where her attacker was apparently waiting. The manned elevator is unmanned after 2 a.m., so she had to use the automatic elevator nearby. She opened the door and her attacker apparently crossed the room and followed her" into the elevator, where she was attacked. There's surveillance video of the suspect and the building's shocked residents are asking for additional security and lighting. In the past incidents, the suspect raped a woman in an alleyway near West 148th Street and Broadway and inside another's building near West 144 Street and Convent Avenue.

If you were appalled by previous accounts of serial rapist John Hamlett and his ruthless cross-examination of one of his distraught victims during his trial, you'll be pleased to know that he was sentenced to 154 years in prison yesterday. Hamlett, whose decision to act his own lawyer during witness testimony backfired spectacularly, was convicted on all 12 counts for repeatedly breaking into the same building on East Third Street and Avenue B and sexually assaulting his victims at knife point. In giving Hamlett the maximum sentence yesterday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley regretted that he could only incarcerate him for the rest of his life: "The sentence you deserve is beyond my ability to impose, so state prison will have to do."

The NY Post reports that police are "hunting for a serial rapist who prowls Manhattan's Union Square subway station for young Asian women to follow home and brutally attack." Two women were raped in their building vestibules, while the suspect "has attempted to assault two others since Oct. 1." His M.O: Waiting for women to unlock their apartment building's door and then he "pounces from behind - choking his victims unconscious before" attacking them (following victims into their buildings is a very common M.O.). Chillingly, three of the attacks occurred on one day: October 20. Police, who believe there may be more victims, tell the Post the suspect is 6 feet tall, 170 pounds, and in his late 20s. Contact CrimeStoppers at 800-577-TIPS or text CRIMES (274637) and enter "TIP577".

Last week as peaceful celebrations went on in the Williamsburg part of Bedford Avenue, a rapist (who is still at large) was prowling the Crown Heights sector. NY1 reports that police are currently looking for the man (pictured), who is "between 25 to 30 years old, 5-feet-9-inches and 180 pounds." He attacked his victim last Wednesday around 4 a.m., and the NYPD tells us it was under the 71st precinct's jurisdiction (Crown Heights area). The network notes that anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers. Meanwhile, perhaps the cops brought in with riot gear that night to take care of the Obama victory revelers could have been used elsewhere?

Memo to lazy dudes: If you buzz your girlfriend into the building and she's not at your door in a timely manner, you need to put Guitar Hero on pause and get your ass downstairs. On Saturday night the girlfriend of a Greenwich Village man was taking longer than usual to get upstairs to his apartment, and when he finally went down to see what happened he found that she was being raped in the building's vestibule. This happened around 7 p.m. on lower Fifth Avenue, according to the Post. So be alert! At least in this case the boyfriend was able to subdue the attacker and call the cops; the alleged rapist, 28-year-old Dean Rogich, told detectives, "I followed her into the building so I could rob her."

Serial rapist John Hamlett's strategy to act as his own lawyer and cross-examine one of his victims has backfired, surprising no one except Hamlett himself. The Daily News reports that he "shook his head in disbelief" when a jury found him guilty yesterday on all 12 counts of sexual abuse, criminal sexual acts, robbery, burglary, and criminal impersonation of a police officer. In 2006, Hamlett broke into the same building on East Third Street and Avenue B three times. On the first visit, he pushed into a woman's apartment with a 10-inch knife and sexually assaulted her. Thirteen days later, he climbed through the fire-escape window into an empty apartment and stole a checkbook, returning days later and identifying himself to the female resident as a detective who had found her checkbook. During the trial, the distraught victim was forced to relive the assault by submitting to Hamlett's cross-examination; he now faces up to 165 years in prison, according to the Post.

Good morning. So this happened yesterday: Rape suspect John Hamlett, a convicted sex offender, was permitted to cross-examine an unnamed woman who accuses him of breaking into her East Third Street and Avenue B apartment in 2006 and sodomizing her at knifepoint. Against the advice of his lawyer, Hamlett insisted on cross-examining the distraught woman—a doctoral student in psychology now living in San Francisco—for about an hour. His questions included "I forced you to have oral sex, right?" and "You stated I put you in a chokehold? And you felt faint?" To which she responded, "Actually, I thought I was going to die." Finally, she begged the judge to stop the questioning, saying, "Do I have to do this? I've been through this. How many times do I have to go through this?" The judge told her she did, and Hamlett continued after a recess.

Joseph Wintje, a 51-year-old convicted rapist and registered sex offender, is suing his former landlord because she allegedly evicted him from his Brooklyn apartment for racist reasons. According to the Post, Wintje's discrimination complaint against 70-year-old landlord Domenica Pedone asserts that after just four days in the apartment he was given an ultimatum by Pedone when she noticed his black girlfriend around. Wintje says Pedone told him, "I don't want her coming over here." But Pedone insists she only evicted Wintje after her neighbors said he was a "bad man," what with his rape-y past and all. One thing's for sure; after this Post article, Wintje's going to have a tough time signing a lease anywhere with access to the Google machine.

Robert Williams, accused of raping and torturing a Columbia University graduate student, was found guilty on 44 of 46 counts, including attempted murder, arson, torture and assault. Williams had tried to blind his victim, forced her to overdose on aspirin, and later set fire to the futon he tied her to. He could face up to life in prison.