"Don't worry, I'll take you home."
That's what a 47-year-old homeless man dug up by the Post claims suspect Darryl Littlejohn said as he helped Imette St. Guillen into his van. Miguel Angel Cruz says he had beel sleeping across the street from The Falls when he was awoken by Littlejohn's van pulling up and then watched the bouncer and St. Guillen drive off.
Our first reaction to this, and we suspect we're not alone on this, was "Gee whiz, what a convenient witness for the New York Post to find for the NYPD!" But apparently Cruz was able to describe distinctive jewelry that Imette was wearing and which haven't been made public. So we'll see what comes of this.
In the meantime, Littlejohn's lawyer is becoming more vocal over the growing doubt "that they have the right guy." A doubt which isn't helped each day that no charges are made or by the fact that the two victims of a series of other rapes were unable to ID Littlejohn in a lineup, though they did ID him in photographs Police say (an aside: ID'ing someone in a lineup is way harder than it looks on TV. Twice we've had to pick someone out of a lineup and both times it was excruciating, un-fun, inexact, and intimidating. And we were on the "good" side of the glass. OK, we just wanted to get that out there, take it as you will.)
And don't get us started on the dozen or so protesters that were standing outside of The Falls yesterday.
Photograph of Miguel Cruz by Jeff Day for the Post
