TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS BURGLAR CONVICTED OF 1994 RAPE OF YOUNG MOTHER ATTACKED IN HER BEDROOM IN FRONT OF 2-YEAR-OLD INFANT DAUGHTER
Prosecution Result of Innovative Project That Closes Statute of Limitation Loophole for Sex Criminals

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Ridgewood, Queens man, who had been indicted only two weeks before the statute of limitations in the case was set to expire, has been convicted in the 1994 rape of a young mother attacked by an intruder in her bedroom in front of her then two-year-old daughter.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant almost assuredly would have escaped punishment for his crimes because of a loophole in the law that had been impeding the prosecution of unidentified sex criminals due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. However, in 2003, an investigation was conducted as part of a special initiative called the ‘John Doe Indictment Project’ which resulted in the defendant’s arrest and ultimately in his conviction. Consequently, justice delayed was no longer justice denied for the victim of the vicious sexual assault in this case.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Hector Torres, 34, of 1724 Troutman Street in Ridgewood, Queens. The defendant was found guilty of Rape in the First Degree, Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, Burglary in the First Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

District Attorney Brown said that a jury of four men and eight women deliberated for one day after an eight-day trial and returned a verdict of guilty before Queens Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Eng who set a sentencing date of October 20, 2005. The defendant, who has been held without bail since his arrest in July 2004, faces up to more than 50 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that according to the trial testimony, on July 23, 1994, the defendant broke into the 24-year-old woman’s residence, went to her bedroom where she was sleeping with her two-year-old daughter and raped her after threatening to harm her child while holding a knife to the child’s throat.

The District Attorney noted that this case was one of a number of investigations stemming from his office’s John Doe Indictment Project which was launched in August 2003 with a $350,000 federal grant shared by the City’s five District Attorneys. The initiative targets unsolved rape and sexual assault cases in which DNA evidence was recovered that are nearing the 10-year-limit. Under current New York State law, felony prosecutions must be commenced within five years of a crime or up to a maximum of 10 years when a perpetrator remains unidentified. Filing John Doe indictments – based on DNA profiles in cases which the perpetrator is presently unknown – before the ten-year period has elapsed satisfies the requirements of the statute of limitations, clearing the way for prosecutions to proceed whenever perpetrators are identified, regardless of how much time has passed.

The New York City Chief Medical Examiner’s Office’s Forensic Biology Laboratory oversees the identification of cases that have DNA evidence capable of sustaining a John Doe indictment. Chief Medical Examiner Charles S. Hirsch, M.D. refers eligible DNA cases to the District Attorneys for investigation in conjunction with the NYPD.

“Although the victim’s rape kit in today’s case had been tested previously with negative results,” District Attorney Brown, said, “Detective Kevin Koenderman of my Office’s Detective Bureau was mindful of the looming expiration of the statute of limitations in the case and reviewed the New York City Police Department’s evidence file. Detective Koenderman discovered that the file containing the victim’s shirt which had stains that might be the attacker’s semen and submitted the shirt for DNA testing.”

District Attorney Brown continued, “The victim’s shirt was analyzed and a DNA profile was obtained. Our office immediately initiated a John Doe grand jury proceeding and while the proceeding was underway, the DNA profile obtained from the shirt was sent to the State DNA Databank for comparison to DNA profiles of convicted felons. A match to defendant Torres was obtained because his DNA profile was in the Databank as a result of his 1995 burglary conviction. The grand jury, now informed of the rapist’s identity, voted to indict Torres who was then arrested. The investigation and successful prosecution of this case is yet another example of the teamwork among police, prosecutors and the chief medical examiner, the importance of the John Doe Indictment Project and the vital importance of DNA evidence. No matter how many years into the future such perpetrators are found – most probably through a State DNA Databank match – they will now be prosecuted because they will no longer be able to escape accountability by seeking refuge in the statute of limitations.”

District Attorney Brown said that defendant Torres was arrested on July 15, 2004, by New York City Police Department Special Victims Squad detectives under the command of Lieutenant Arthur Hall as the result of excellent investigative work by Detective Koenderman. Detective Georgianna DeRosaalso, of the District Attorney’s Detective Squad, also assisted in the investigation.

Special Assistant District Attorneys Karen Migdal and Donna-Marie Golia, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, prosecuted the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Marjory Fisher, Bureau Chief, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum.