Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Basam Syed was sentenced today to three years in prison after pleading guilty to persistent sexual abuse following charges of forcibly rubbing his genitals on a woman last summer.

District Attorney Katz said: “The sentence punishes the defendant’s lewdness and should teach him that his disgusting behavior has no place on our streets and simply will not be tolerated.”

Syed, 43, of 111^th Street in Richmond Hill, pleaded guilty to persistent sexual abuse on January 24 before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant, who imposed today’s determinate sentence of three years in prison to be followed by five years post-release supervision. The defendant was previously convicted of sexual abuse in Queens County in 2015 and for forcible touching in New York County, also in 2015.

According to the charges, Syed approached a woman who was working as a college summer intern canvassing the Jamaica area seeking signatures for a petition. The defendant approached the victim and signed his name to the petition.  After signing, Syed sexually abused the victim on the sidewalk near the intersection of Parsons Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue and then fled on foot.

Syed was arrested about a week later after the victim identified him utilizing an internet search with the information he entered on the petition.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Regan, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Eric Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief, and Debra Lynn Pomodore and Brian C. Hughes, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.