Results tagged “rape”

Police arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with two rapes in the Rockaways last month. The Daily News reports that DNA evidence linked Malcolm Johnson to the crimes. He was charged with "rape, sexual assault, robbery, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon."

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.

Roman Polanski's lawyer told Swiss newspapers that the acclaimed and controversial filmmaker is not in great shape. Herve Temine visited the 76-year-old, who has been in Swiss custody since September 26, and said to one paper, "I found him to be tired and depressed," and told another, "Roman Polanski...seemed very dejected when I visited him. Polanski was in an unsettled state of mind." Earlier this week, the Swiss authorities denied his request for bail.

As film director Roman Polanski remains in Swiss custody, after being arrested on a U.S. arrest warrant for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old, his moviemaking brethren are rallying to his side. A number of notable film notables, including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, and Pedro Almodovar, have reportedly signed a petition demanding his release. However, it's unlikely he'll be released on bail anytime soon.

Film director Roman Polanski, who fled the U.S. in 1978 after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old, was arrested in Switzerland, where he was scheduled to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The 76-year-old was taken into custody at his hotel.

The alleged serial rapist who terrorized Upper Manhattan for over a month tried to make a break for it during his arraignment Monday night. He didn't get very far. According to the Post, an unidentified young woman—believed to be a girlfriend—was in the Manhattan Criminal Court room sobbing and blowing kisses at suspect Vincent Heyward, whose DNA matched all four victims. When Heyward saw her, he bolted for the back door of the courtroom, pursued by more than a dozen court officers.

Nearly a week after an 18-year-old Hofstra student claimed that five men raped her in a dormitory bathroom—only to later admit the story was fake—the freshman may face charges for her lies, which put four of the "suspects" behind bars for two days.

The man who was accused of being involved in a gang rape of a Hofstra University student, only for the student to recant her claim and admit the sex was consensual because there was a video of the encounter, is on the cover of the Post today. While Arvin Rivera, an 18-year-old senior at Harry S. Truman HS in The Bronx, was not arrested, he tells the paper, "I was so afraid. Words cannot even begin to describe how I was feeling inside. Thank God I was there. And thank God I filmed it."

Hofstra University has suspended the 18-year-old freshman student who falsely accused five men—four of whom were arrested and jailed—of gang raping her in a Hofstra dorm after an on-campus party Sunday morning. Now the student, identified by the Post and WCBS 2 as Danmell Ndonye, may face criminal charges as Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice said, "I have launched an immediate criminal investigation into the statements and reports given by the woman in connection with this incident."

[Update: Now the Nassau County DA says the student lied about the rape.]

Nassau County Police say four of five suspects accused of gang raping a Hofstra University student are in custody. Apparently an 18-year-old woman was assaulted on campus around 3 a.m. on Sunday. One of the suspects is a fellow student, Rondell Bedward, 21, of the Bronx, who was charged with five counts of first-degree rape. Bronx residents Stan Felipe, 19, and Jesus Ortiz, 19, were charged with five counts of first-degree rape and first-degree attempted criminal sexual act; Ortiz was also charged with fourth-degree larceny. Kevin Taveras of Brent was charged with five counts of first-degree rape; Bedward and Ortiz were arraigned yesterday while Felipe and Taveras are being arraigned today. Police are still looking for the fifth suspect.

Police are hoping that DNA testing may link a man they picked up in Harlem this weekend to the series of rapes that have occurred throughout Hamilton Heights over the last month. A Pennsylvania ex-con was picked up Saturday for questioning and is being held on an outstanding warrant as they await to see if his DNA matches a sample recovered from a discarded soda can during one of the four sexual assault incidents in Upper Manhattan. When the man was picked up over the weekend, he told cops, "If you're looking at me for something, I have a twin brother." (He doesn't.) But three of the four victims who have made it down to Special Victims Unit have failed to pick the suspect out of a lineup. Yesterday the Guardian Angels led a rally to continue to spread the word about the rapist. Assemblyman Keith Wright said, "This community will not rest until this person is arrested, indicted, convicted, and incarcerated." Wright is proposing $100,000 in state funds be made available for increased street lighting in the neighborhood.

A Long Island math teacher, who was arrested in July for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in an elementary school parking lot, is being charged with yet another sex crime. Daniel Rothbard, 28, was out on bail for the first alleged statutory rape when he was arrested again yesterday. Police say that two weeks before the parking lot incident, Rothbard allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl and her 14-year-old friend to his house, where he resided with his pregnant wife. Prosecutors tell Newsday the 14-year-old walked in on him having sex with the younger girl. None of the victims were his students; Rothbard met them on MySpace posing as a 17-year-old with the screen name "DJ" or "D to the J." According to CBS2, the house is now empty and for sale, and Rothbard's lawyer says his client is on suicide watch and pleading not guilty. But Nassau County Police Lt. John Allen expects to find more victims, and the Valley Stream school district has barred Rothbard from school property and prohibited him from having any contact with children or their parents. He's currently behind bars in lieu of $600,000 bail, an amount his lawyer called excessive.

Police are looking for a man that they believe has committed three sexual assaults this month in Upper Manhattan. NY1 has newly released surveillance video of the man described as in his 30s, 5-feet-9-inches to 6-feet tall with a medium build. His latest attack came last week when he followed a 69-year-old woman into the elevator of her building at 158th Street and Riverside Drive and raped her—robbing her as well. The other two assaults took place in Hamilton Heights over the past few weeks, one also in an elevator at West 144th Street and Convent Avenue and the other in an alleyway at West 148th Street and Broadway. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "I would urge women to be particularly aware and alert when they frequent 24-hour shopping locations. We've seen this in the past, where people are lurking outside and following the women from the locations." One woman told NY1, "I have pepper spray on my keychain. I think my dog will let me know before I'm aware that [an attacker's] behind me. And I have something else that I'm not supposed to carry, but I carry it. That's basically it."

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.

The woman who is accusing two NYPD officers of raping her inside her apartment while she was intoxicated has filed a claim against the city and the two cops for $5 million. The woman, who remains anonymous, is seeking $3 million for personal injuries and $2 million in punitive damages. Officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata are currently awaiting trial for the sexual assault charges after being indicted by a grand jury in April. The Post has gotten a hold of "newly disclosed legal papers" from the suit whic bring to light new details which had not previously been made public:

A New Jersey woman has admitted she fabricated an allegation of rape against a man who's now serving a 20-year-sentence for the alleged assault. William McCaffrey, 31, was sentenced in 2006 after Biurny Peguero Gonzalez testified that he and two other men raped her at knife point in a van parked in Upper Manhattan in September 2005. But she now says she made the whole thing up, to cover for a fight with some of her women friends. Last year, new scientific developments enabled investigators to retest the DNA from bites on Gonzalez's arm; no "Y" chromosome was found, meaning the bites could not have come from a man.

Police released a sketch of a man who is believed to have committed two sexual assaults in Hamilton Heights this month. According to 1010WINS, "The first incident occurred on Aug 1 around 8 p.m. Police say the man grabbed a 59-year-old woman and dragged her into an alleyway near West 148th Street and Broadway where she was sexually assaulted and robbed. On Aug 10 around 2 a.m. the man followed a 23-year-old woman into an elevator near West 144 Street and Convent Avenue where he sexually assaulted her and robbed her at knifepoint." And per the Daily News, the suspected is "described as black, in his 30s, 6 feet tall and of medium build," who wore "blue jeans, a black hooded sweatshirt and white sneakers with red stripes on the soles." People with information are urged to call CrimeStoppers (800-577-TIPS [8477]), entering tips at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577.

Back in the summer of 1991 a Florida college student, Lynne Ronning (pictured), was working as a counselor at a camp in the Poconos. On a day off, the 24-year-old walked to a waterfall, where she was shot in the head "at point-blank range" and raped "as she lay dying," the NY Post recalls. Police found her body the next morning, "posed in a degrading sexual position" with "numerous defensive wounds." It was long suspected that Jeffrey Plishka, son of Metropolitan Opera star Paul Plishka, was guilty (the family had a home nearby the Pennsylvania camp), but it wasn't until now that DNA evidence has connected him with the horrific crime. The paper reports that the 46-year-old has been getting around courtesy of his dad's help, moving to the various family homes around the country for 18 years—one friend says, "The family has done everything it can to keep him off the radar"—which made the investigation more difficult. Plishka, who maintains his innocence, is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, jailed "on multiple counts of murder, as well as attempted rape and deviate sexual intercourse." Prosecutors are considering whether to ask for the death penalty.

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender.

Songwriter and film director Joseph Brooks was charged with a 91-count indictment yesterday for using his status as a onetime-Oscar winner to lure women with dreams of stardom into his apartment so that he could allegedly rape and sexually assault them. Brooks, 71, primarily used craigslist to advertise parts in "his next movie" that led to sexual assaults on at least 11 women at his apartment on East 63rd Street, mostly over the last two years. An investigator told reporters, “The Oscar was used as a prop. This could be you, this could be you holding this Oscar. If you do what I say.”

For five unbearable years, the male CEO of teddy-bear giant Steiff "engaged in violent sexual assaults and other forms of sexual harassment" against a female employee, according to court papers filed in an $80 million lawsuit. 32-year-old Jane Collins, mother of two, worked as an assistant to Steiff's North American CEO Martin Frechen starting in 2002. She says that while they were attending a conference in Plymouth, Mass., Frechen asked her to come to his hotel room to help with a speech, then tried to force himself on her. She fled, but says Frechen wouldn't take no for an answer, asking Collins to meet him that night behind a gas station, which she declined. The following week, Frechen asked Collins to help him get his wife's car into a storage unit, and then closed the warehouse door and allegedly raped her. Collins insists she didn't report the alleged rape to anyone because she was a single mom and "terrified" she'd lose her job; in fact, she still works there! Collins tells the Post, "I cannot easily imagine working anywhere else. I adore the company's line of teddy bears." To be fair, they are beary adorable!

As the defense vowed to continue their fight another day, the mother of Imette St. Guillen wept with joy and expressed gratitude to the jury who quickly delivered a guilty verdict against Darryl Littlejohn for the rape and murder of her daughter. Outside the courtroom where the bouncer was convicted yesterday, Maureen St. Guillen said, "With Imette's death, all of our lives are forever darkened. A little piece of us died with her. Her love and caring for others was never-ending."

Melissa Weber, the Queens social studies affair accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student (in her classroom), is being held on $100,000 bail. Her lawyer Donald Vogelman had tried to argue for her release, since Weber, 27, doesn't have a criminal history and that "the alleged crime amounted to a statutory rape charge that would likely result in probation," while prosecutors were asking for $200,000 bail. Of the $100,000 amount, Vogelman told the Post, "She doesn't have money, and her family doesn't have the money to make bail. With what she looks like, she is going to have a difficult time in jail." The Daily News reports that Weber denied any sort of inappropriate relationship with the boy; Weber allegedly told the police he grabbed her butt a few times, "The only thing I did wrong was not reporting it." The boy's mother, who heard rumors of her son's and Weber's alleged closeness apparently found hundreds of text messages between the two.

Yesterday, a woman described a rape and attack very similar to how John Jay College student Imette St. Guillen was attacked. St. Guillen was found dead in 2006, and a bouncer at the bar she was last seen, Darryl Littlejohn, is on trial for her murder. While the woman was unable to pick out Littlejohn in a lineup, a judge allowed her to testify because the attack was so similar to St. Guillen's and another woman's. The Daily News reports that the woman described being "snatched off" Queens Boulevard, and then "the attacker handcuffed her and bundled her into a car," threatening her with a gun. "Warning her to shut up, the attacker drove her to a bedroom that sounded similar to Littlejohn's basement apartment in his mother's Jamaica home. The attacker taped a knit cap over her eyes - a key detail because Littlejohn allegedly taped over St. Guillen's eyes." After raping her, her attacker "forced her to clean up and change into shorts and a T-shirt," which had LIttlejohn's mother's DNA on it.

After news that a woman claimed she was raped in the Morristown, NJ home of Jets safety Kerry Rhodes, the press—namely the tabloids—is staked out by Rhodes' fancy condominium. Rhodes is not suspected in the rape, but the media invasion was too much for Rhodes' neighbors. According to the Daily Record, when Rhodes drove away from his home, "The photographers sprang to action, snapping photos of Rhodes, who wore a baseball cap slung low as he sped down MacCulloch toward Route 202. A neighbor, however, was incensed by their actions and chased photographers down MacCulloch, screaming expletives and threats." The police eventually arrived and asked photographers from the NY Post and Daily News "to keep their distance," noting that the Morristown police "[doesn't] have the resources to keep a car out here." The police are investigating whether a friend of Rhodes is involved.

Jets officials are closely monitoring allegations that a woman was raped in the home of their safety, Kerry Rhodes. According to the Post, a Canadian tourist reported to the NYPD that she and a friend met Rhodes and another man at a Manhattan nightclub Friday night. The woman and her friend ended up leaving with them and going to his Morristown, NJ town house, where she said she was raped. NYPD brought the woman to Morristown police, who would only comment that there is "an ongoing investigation." After being questioned by cops, Rhodes, whose nickname is Hollywood, released a statement saying, "I briefly talked with police on Saturday regarding an incident that allegedly took place at my home. The police confirmed to me that I am not the subject of this allegation." The Post also adds that Rhodes "starred in an independent film about relationship dilemmas called Misunderstandings, in which he had a steamy hot-tub scene" and that the Jets are "gathering information" about the situation.

The Bronx DA's office revealed even more disturbing news about the murder of 14-year-old Anna Matias. The teen, who was killed by her father Miguel Matias, who threw her body into the boiler), was pregnant with her father's child. According to the Daily News, "DNA taken from Matias matches a sample taken from the fetus carried by his daughter," resulting in prosecutors "consolidat[ing] the two indictments against him - an earlier one for his daughter's murder on Feb. 16, 2008, and the newest one for second-degree rape and incest." Matias, who had previously tried to kill himself, Anna and another child by dousing a car with gasoline, had allegedly claimed he was angry at Anna for messaging a boy via the computer and strangled her. He now faces 25 to life for the murder and 7 years for the rape.

The two cops accused of raping an intoxicated woman placed a fake 911 call in order to give themselves an excuse to return to her apartment and sexually assaulted her after having tended to her on two previous visits. According to the New York Post, prosecutors say that Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata (pictured) used a pay phone at First Avenue and East 13th Street to place a 911 call under the name "John Edward." In the call, they complained about a drunk homeless man whom they said was in front of a building two doors down from the victim's residence.

More revolting details emerged on the rape charges against two NYPD officers during their arraignment yesterday, and Commissioner Ray Kelly held a special press conference to publicly condemn the men. Officer Kenneth Moreno—a 17-year veteran on the force and 41-year-old married father of two—pleaded not guilty to allegations that he illegally entered an unidentified woman's East Village apartment and, according to Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau, "had sexual intercourse with the physically helpless victim as she lay face down on her bed, having previously vomited multiple times."