A Greenwich Village man has been accused of raping a tourist earlier this week—but he claims the woman is just angry because he didn't let her sleep over at his apartment. Benjamin Gordon, 42, has been charged with rape, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse for allegedly assaulting the 41-year-old tourist from Georgia.
According to the woman, Gordon approached her on the street and asked her to get a drink with him just after midnight Monday. After one drink, Gordon then allegedly invited her to see the view of the Empire State Building from his multimillion-dollar apartment, which he shares with his fiancée on Washington Square North. “He appears to be a predator,” a police source told the Post. “They didn’t have a dinner-and-dance-type night. They had one drink, and it was, like, ‘Do you want to see the sights?’ ”
After they were inside the apartment, the woman wanted to leave, but Gordon allegedly wouldn't let her and asked, “Have you ever been violated before?” Then he allegedly said, “You can have the hard option or the soft option,” before raping her three times while wearing condoms. After each assault, he allegedly made her wash off in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence. Before letting her leave, he took a photo of her driver's license.
But Gordon, who tutors students at Lehman College, told the Post that the woman was only upset because she couldn’t spend the night with him. He claims they went out for Cabernet Sauvignon at Le Souk in Soho and bought marijuana at Washington Square Park before having sex on his rooftop. Then, Gordon said he told her to leave because his fiancée, Charlotte Schioler, was there: “I said, ‘My girlfriend is downstairs. She would kill you if she found out.’ ”
Schioler, who posted $100K bail for him, added that the two have an “open relationship."
