Friday, January 28, 2005

D.A. BROWN: JAMAICA MAN SENTENCED TO 16 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SEXUAL ATTACKS OF WOMEN IN QUEENS IN 1998 AND 2003

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Jamaica man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually attacking two women in Queens five years apart in 1998 and 2003.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is a dangerous sexual predator and women will be protected by the long prison sentence imposed by the court which punishes the defendant for his violent crimes and protects society from further danger.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Leroy Peoples, 21, of 102-48 184th Street in Jamaica, Queens. The defendant pled guilty on January 12, 2005 to two counts of Rape in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Grosso who imposed today’s determinate sentence of 16 years in prison.

The District Attorney said that the defendant admitted his guilt in two attacks on women in 1998 and 2003 that included:

• an attack on March 7, 1998 of a 46-year-old woman approached on 186th Street in Jamaica while pushing a laundry cart who was forced at gunpoint to walk down a set of stairs off the street where she was raped, sodomized and robbed of cash;

• an attack on April 7, 2003 of a 57-year-old woman approached at a bus stop at 193rd Street and Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica who was dragged at gunpoint off the street, robbed of cash and credit cards and then raped, sodomized and sexually abused.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant was arrested in New London, Connecticut on June 13, 2003 as a result of excellent investigative work by the New York City Police Department’s Queens Special Victims Squad.

The investigation was conducted by Detectives Steven Dorn, John Bennett, David Jones and Brian Kenzik under the supervision of Lieutenant Patrick Baricelli.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Eric C. Rosenbaum, Unit Chief, of the District Attorney’s DNA Prosecutions Unit/Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.