FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Ditmas Park Man Convicted of Impersonating a Police Officer and
Brutally Raping a Woman inside Sunset Park Hotel
Showed a Fake Badge, Went with Victim to Hotel Room and Attacked Her;
Faces up to 86 years to Life in Prison at Sentencing
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a 39-year-old Brooklyn man has been convicted of predatory sexual assault, robbery, impersonation and other charges for violently raping a woman at a hotel room after showing her a fake badge and claiming to be a police officer.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This violent sexual predator preyed upon a woman by claiming to be a cop, then raped and robbed her. He’s been held accountable and we will ask for the longest sentence possible so that he will not be able to victimize any other woman ever again.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Jason Forgetta, 39, of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. He was convicted today of three counts of predatory sexual assault, second-degree strangulation as a sexually motivated felony, third-degree robbery and first-degree criminal impersonation following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino. The defendant faces up to 86 years to life in prison when sentenced on September 12, 2016.
The District Attorney said that, according to evidence at trial, on July 30, 2014, at about 2:00 a.m., the victim was walking in the street outside 517 39th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn when the defendant stopped his car, presented a police badge and initiated a conversation. The 26-year-old victim, who was a sex worker, agreed to accompany the defendant to a room she had rented in the Sunny 39 Hotel that was in that location at the time.
Once inside the room, the defendant told the victim she was under arrest, shoved her against the wall, put a pillow over her head and repeatedly raped her, according to testimony. He then instructed her to take a shower to “wash all the DNA” off, stole her wallet, cell phone and undergarments and left.
The victim ran after him and was able to observe the license plate number of the vehicle the defendant was driving, leading to his arrest. A fake police badge was recovered from the vehicle. The defendant was deemed a level-3 sex offender following a prior rape conviction.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Lisa Nugent and Lauren Branchini of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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