Monday, June 20, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS IN PRISON FOR RAPING 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Far Rockaway, Queens man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl whom he met in July 2003 after she dialed his cell phone by mistake.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant admitted that he engaged in sexual relations with a child. The sentence imposed by the court is just and fits the crime.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Bernard Luster, 40, of 67-03 Beach Channel Drive, Far Rockaway, Queens, who pled guilty on May 17, 2005 to Rape in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Hollie who imposed today’s determinate sentence of eight years in prison.
District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that on three occasions -- July 16, 18 and July 23, 2003 -- he drove to the victim’s home, picked her up and drove to a nearby location where he engaged in sexual intercourse with her.
The District Attorney said that the victim’s mother learned of the destructive relationship between her daughter and the defendant and notified police prompting an investigation that led to the defendant’s arrest.
Assistant District Attorney Kenneth M. Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chief, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney 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 Daniel A. Saunders.