A federal grand jury indicted an East New York man on Thursday for allegedly raiding a Williamsburg apartment seeking drugs, only to then rape a woman there under the guise of a police officer, according to U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue.
The 27-year-old defendant, acting in cahoots with several accomplices, went to a drug dealer’s family home to nab heroin and cash in the early hours of July 31, 2015, and announced themselves as cops, showing a fake badge, before brandishing firearms and tying up their victims with duct tape, according to law enforcement sources.
After noticing that someone had thrown a bag of dope out a window, prosecutors allege that the defendant dragged a woman outside to a back alley to look for the drugs and, when they weren’t able to find them, he forced her to perform oral sex and raped her before taking off, sources said.
“Posing as NYPD officers and brandishing firearms, [the defendant] and his co- conspirators terrorized victims of an attempted home invasion robbery, with [the defendant] escalating the violence still further by raping a female victim,” said Donoghue. “Together with our law enforcement partners, we will work unceasingly to protect residents of our communities from this type of senseless violence.”
Following his arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced that the defendant would be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act — which allows robbery cases involving any form of interstate commerce to be tried federally — as a result of the drugs involved, which investigators believe were originally obtained from out of state.
