FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Sex Offender Sentenced to 50 Years to Life in Prison for
Robbing and Raping Woman as She Walked Home from the Train
Defendant Threatened Her with Knife and Cut her Clothing
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 54-year-old Brooklyn man and registered sex offender has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in 2016 as she walked home from a subway station in Bushwick.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “We are determined to keep dangerous sexual predators like this defendant off our streets. The defendant’s heinous and cowardly crime against a defenseless woman was the ultimate violation of her physical and mental wellbeing, yet she still had the courage to face him in court. Today’s sentence ensures that he will not be able to hurt any other women.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Michael Mann, 54, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dena Douglas to 50 years to life in prison following his conviction last month after a jury trial. The defendant was convicted of two counts of predatory sexual assault and one count each of first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree robbery as a sexually motivated felony and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on August 16, 2016, at approximately 2:45 a.m. the victim exited the J-train Kosciuszko Street subway station in Bushwick and started to walk home. The defendant grabbed the 27-year-old woman from behind, placed a knife to her back, demanded money and threatened to stab her. The victim gave the defendant $5 and offered him the rest of her belongings. The defendant kissed and groped the victim, then cut her clothing with the knife and raped her.
Furthermore, according to testimony, the defendant told the victim that he had seen her before, knew where she lived, and that he would kill her if she called the police. After the defendant left, the victim went home and told a friend about the attack. The victim was taken to Wycoff Hospital where a sexual assault evidence collection kit was performed.
The defendant, a Level 3 sex offender, was arrested on August 17, 2016, after officers responded to a dispute at 11 Stanhope Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The officers recognized the defendant from a description provided in the sexual assault report. He was wearing the same sneakers, jeans and hat that he wore at the time of the assault and his DNA matched semen that was recovered from a bathing suit the victim had on when he attacked her.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Lauren Silver and Assistant District Attorney Andrea Mauro, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Chief.
#