Sex fiend gets ‘sweet’ deal from Manhattan DA Bragg on teen rape charge — then attacks 5 others: sources

[The Bobster]

Sex fiend gets ‘sweet’ deal from Manhattan DA Bragg on teen rape charge — then attacks 5 others: sources

Justin Washington, 25, was promised a plum 30-day jail sentence, along with five years of probation, after he agreed in August to plead down to a charge of coercion in his Manhattan rape case.

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Sex fiend gets ‘sweet’ deal from Manhattan DA Bragg on teen rape charge — then attacks 5 others: sources​

By
Larry Celona and

Gabrielle Fonrouge


September 22, 2022 1:17pm
Updated









A deranged fiend who secured a sweetheart plea deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for raping his teen relative sexually terrorized five people a month later



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A man accused of raping his teenage relative secured a sweetheart plea deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — and then went on to allegedly sexually terrorize five people in the Bronx just a month later, The Post has learned.
Justin Washington, 25, was promised a plum 30-day jail sentence, along with five years of probation, after he agreed in August to plead down to a charge of coercion in his Manhattan rape case.
But just a week before he was set to be sentenced Wednesday, Washington allegedly went on a sex-crime spree, attacking four women and a man near the homeless shelter where he was living in the Bronx.
After finding out about the Sept. 15 arrest, prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they were reconsidering the sentence recommended with the plea deal — which some cops said should never have been offered in the first place.
“How does a man who rapes an innocent teenage girl walk the streets to sexually attack [five] more innocent [people], including a homeless woman?” one Manhattan cop fumed.




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Another police source scoffed at the 30-day sentence, pointing out that the original charge of rape Washington faced could have gotten him locked up for up to 25 years, if convicted.

Justin Washington appears in Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday afternoon for a hearing on charges related to sexual assault and burglary.Daniel William McKnight
“That is a sweet deal. He went from rape one and facing 25 years in jail, which is hard time, to 30 days,” the officer said.


“What a joke.”


The second-degree coercion charge Washington agreed to plead to also carries a maximum penalty of 16 months to four years behind bars — much more than the 30 days offered by the DA.


“These were very traumatizing crimes and he shouldn’t have been allowed to walk the streets. What about the teenager?” a police source said, adding, “The DA should be coming up with programs for victims, not criminals.”

A week before he was set to be sentenced Wednesday, Justin Washington allegedly went on a sex-crime spree.DCPI
Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for Bragg’s office, defended the plea deal originally offered to Washington.


“Our experienced sex crimes prosecutors conducted a thorough investigation and were in regular contact with the survivor’s family throughout this case. Based on the evidence, we determined that this was an appropriate plea to spare the young survivor from having to testify, while holding Washington accountable for his conduct,” Tuttle said in an email.


“As the investigation into this week’s extremely disturbing allegations in the Bronx continues, we will determine whether to ask for a lengthier jail sentence.”


Justin Washington attacked four women and a man near the homeless shelter where he was living in the Bronx, authorities say.DCPI

Washington first landed behind bars on February 23, after a teenage relative told police he raped her while the two were watching television together in East Harlem, law enforcement sources said.


He was hit with charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching and thrown in jail on a measly $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond — despite prosecutors asking a judge to set a $100,000 bail in connection with the case.


About three weeks later, prosecutors reduced Washington’s charges to third-degree rape after they determined they didn’t have enough evidence, and he was sprung from jail when a judge agreed to reduce his bail to $12,000.


Washington, who has no prior arrests, made all of his court appearances, but last Thursday — less than a week before he was set to be sentenced — he allegedly used his last days as a free man to commit a string of attacks, court records say.


The spree started at 8:20 a.m., when he crawled into an 18-year-old man’s window, put his hands in the man’s underwear and demanded money while gripping the victim’s buttocks, prosecutors alleged.


“Can I get a dollar, bro?” Washington allegedly asked the victim, who obliged the request.


Justin Washington had no arrests prior to the string of sex crimes.

The creep refused to take the dollar bill, but then asked for it again before telling the victim, “Never mind, you’re not understanding” and fleeing through the window, prosecutors said.


About 40 minutes later, Washington allegedly crept up the fire escape of a building on Davidson Avenue and began banging on the apartment window of a 26-year-old woman, who was at home with her 9-month-old son at the time, according to prosecutors and sources.


When the woman opened her curtains, she saw Washington masturbating on her fire escape, prosecutors alleged.


Half an hour later, Washington allegedly burst into a 49-year-old woman’s apartment in the same building and attempted to rape her, court records say.


He pushed the woman down on her bed, pulled up her nightgown, climbed on top of her and masturbated as he asked, “Can I get a dollar?,” prosecutors alleged.


As the sicko pushed the woman’s legs apart and smelled them, she bit his hand, scratched him and then whacked him in the head with a hammer, court records say.


Justin Washington allegedly burst into a 49-year-old woman’s apartment and attempted to rape her.DCPI

Fifteen minutes later, Washington went to an apartment on Aqueduct Avenue, slipped his hand through a woman’s bathroom window, stole her underwear and then began masturbating, prosecutors said.


The disturbing rampage ended about five minutes later when Washington allegedly found his final victim — a homeless woman who was sleeping in the lobby of the Aqueduct Avenue building.


He was caught on surveillance footage molesting the woman, pulling down her pants, touching her buttocks and masturbating, prosecutors said.


The 26-year-old woman who caught Washington allegedly masturbating on her fire escape said Thursday the incident left her “shaken up” but Bragg’s decision to give him a plea deal before it happened is just part Big Apple life these days.


“I’m not surprised that he was out on the streets,” she told The Post.


“Isn’t that what they do?”


The NYPD’s Bronx warrant squad picked Washington up two days later at a homeless shelter on Phelan Place and hit him with a slew of charges, including attempted rape, burglary, forcible touching and sexually motivated felony.


Prosecutors with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office asked the court to remand him into custody — or set a $500,000 cash bail or $1,500,000 bond in the case.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they were reconsidering the sentence recommended with the plea deal.AFP via Getty Images
The justice ultimately set a $50,000 cash bail, or $150,000 bond, and sent Washington back to Rikers Island.


The case will be presented to a grand jury this week.


During his hearing in the Manhattan case on Wednesday — where he had been set to get the wrist-slap sentence for the alleged February rape — prosecutors asked Judge Laurie Peterson for an adjournment, citing the string of attacks in the Bronx.


“We believe the defendant has violated the terms of his plea agreement that he made back in August and we’re requesting the defendant be remanded and the case be adjourned for sentencing until further information from the Bronx,” Assistant District Attorney Courtney Groves said during the hearing.


The judge agreed, and adjourned the case until Sept. 28.

Justin Washington was caught on surveillance footage molesting a woman and masturbating, police said.DCPI


Washington also wouldn’t have had to register as a sex offender under the plea agreement, one police officer pointed out — while noting the cushy agreement failed to deter Washington from allegedly committing more crimes.
“I understand they talked to the victim’s family, but what about the rest of the citizens of New York who can become Mr. Washington’s victims in the future, like those innocent five people in the Bronx?,” the cop said.
“If the district attorney didn’t give him this deal, they would not have been sexually assaulted.”
Adam Konta, Washington’s court-appointed attorney in his Manhattan case, said he was waiting to review the evidence on the Bronx attacks.
“We have a system that works where everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Konta told The Post by phone, while declining to say if his client has any mental health issues.
“Right now, there’s not enough evidence in the Bronx to know if this was or wasn’t Justin.”
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts and Elizabeth Rosner

 

[The Bobster]

NYC mother recalls horror of attack by accused sex fiend who got ‘sweet’ plea deal: ‘I can’t sleep’

“I can’t sleep,” she said Thursday during an emotional interview, crying at times as she recalled the nightmarish incident. “If I hear anything, I get up and look around. I get nervous.…

nypost.com

NYC mother recalls horror of attack by accused sex fiend who got ‘sweet’ plea deal: ‘I can’t sleep’​

By
Georgett Roberts and

Allie Griffin


September 23, 2022 6:00am
Updated









A deranged fiend who secured a sweetheart plea deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for raping his teen relative sexually terrorized five people a month later




A Bronx woman nearly raped by an accused sex fiend who had secured a sweetheart plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said she’s still terrorized a week after the ordeal — while blasting the “system” that allowed her alleged attacker to be free.
The 49-year-old victim, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, said she can’t bear to be alone in her apartment since the creep broke in last week and tried to sexually assault her.
“I can’t sleep,” she said Thursday during an emotional interview, crying at times as she recalled the nightmarish incident. “If I hear anything, I get up and look around. I get nervous. I get anxiety.”
The mom of two had been home alone in the Bronx on Sept. 15 when prosecutors allege that Justin Washington, 25, climbed in through a window and attempted to rape her.
A 49-year old Bronx woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by Justin Washington inside her apartment. BRIGITTE STELZER
“He acted crazy, like a person not mentally stable,” the victim recalled. “He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me on the bed.”




She was the second of five people Washington allegedly terrorized that day — in a sex-crimes spree that came just a week before he was set to be sentenced in a Manhattan rape case.
Washington — who was let out on bail weeks after being accused of raping a teenage relative in late February — had secured a deal in which prosecutors would recommend he get just 30 days behind bars, plus five years’ probation, in exchange for him pleading guilty to a coercion charge.
“If he would have not gotten out of jail during this time, none of this would have happened,” the mom he later allegedly attacked told The Post. “Look what he did! They should change the system. It’s not right.”
The woman said she had been doing chores the day of the incident when she noticed her pet parrot Coco “going crazy” and heard footsteps — prompting her to step out of her bedroom and into the hall.
The woman noticed Washington’s shadow inside her room.
“Then I saw a shadow,” she said — describing the terrifying moment she realized she wasn’t alone. “I twisted my body to peep in the room [and] I saw the man.”
The two stared at each other and “I felt chills from my head to my toes,” she told The Post.
“I screamed at him, ‘What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here,'” the woman recalled. “He was coming at me.”
Washington allegedly chased her into her bedroom and then removed his pants and began masturbating, she said.
She grabbed her phone to call the police, but he allegedly knocked it out of her hand and demanded she get on the bed.
She was the second of five people allegedly terrorized that day in a sex-crime spree. BRIGITTE STELZER
The woman fiercely attempted to fight him off — even grabbing a hammer from the windowsill — but the sicko still overpowered her.
She tearfully recounted how he forced her legs open and sniffed her while his pants were down.
Then he suddenly backed off — and began asking for one or two dollars, the victim said. She seized the opportunity to quickly snatch the hammer that had been lying on the floor.
“I went down and grabbed the hammer. I was angry,” the woman said. “I shouted, ‘Go out, go out.’ I broke the glass in the window so he could see I wasn’t playing, I was serious. He didn’t take me seriously.”
Washington allegedly began coming toward her again — so she whacked him in the head with the hammer, causing him to bleed, she said.
The victim tried to call the police but Washington knocked the phone out of her hand.BRIGITTE STELZER
“He touched himself and saw the blood,” she recounted, adding that the injury was enough to scare the creep off.
“He went back out the way he came in,” she said. “I was following him with the hammer.”
Immediately following the attack, the woman said, she ran outside and began knocking on neighbors’ doors.
She felt sick.
“I was shocked. I wanted to vomit,” she recalled. “I was crying.”
Her 17-year-old daughter said she was “very, very proud” of her mom for fighting the perv off.
“She is a very strong person,” the teen told The Post. “I know she will do everything in her power to defend herself.”
The Bronx mom was able to scare the perv off, but is left with the terrifying memory of that day. DCPI
Washington had allegedly accosted another resident in the building a half-hour before he broke into the 49-year-old woman’s apartment.
In that incident, he crept up the fire escape and banged on the apartment window of a 26-year-old woman, who was at home with her 9-month-old son at the time, according to prosecutors and sources.
When the woman opened her curtains, she saw Washington masturbating on her fire escape, prosecutors alleged.
He is also accused of molesting an 18-year-old man whose window he crawled through, stealing a woman’s underwear and molesting a homeless woman who was sleeping in a building lobby — all within a few hours of his alleged attacks on the two neighbors.
The disturbing rampage came about a month after Washington secured the plea deal from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in the rape case.
Washington allegedly accosted another resident in the building that same day. DCPI
Washington was initially hit with charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching in that case. He was thrown in jail on Feb. 23 on $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond — despite prosecutors asking a judge to set bail at $100,000.
About three weeks later, prosecutors reduced Washington’s charges to third-degree rape after they determined they didn’t have enough evidence — and he was sprung from jail when a judge agreed to lower his bail to $12,000.
He was sent back to Rikers Island last week after a Bronx judge set his bail at $50,000 cash bail or $150,000 bond on charges including attempted rape, burglary, forcible touching and sexually motivated felony for the alleged Sept. 15 spree.
Washington was set to be sentenced Wednesday in the Manhattan case, but prosecutors asked for a delay — citing the allegations in the Bronx — and the hearing was adjourned until Sept. 28.
Prosecutors said they believed Washington had broken the terms of his plea agreement. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is reconsidering the sentence recommended as part of the deal.
Washington in Manhattan criminal court for a hearing on charges related to sexual assault and burglary.DANIEL WILLIAM MCKNIGHT
A spokesperson for Bragg said the deal had been offered to spare the young victim from having to testify “while holding Washington accountable for his conduct.”
“As the investigation into this week’s extremely disturbing allegations in the Bronx continues, we will determine whether to ask for a lengthier jail sentence,” the spokesperson said in a statement.