A 57 year old man released from Rikers Island during the coronavirus outbreak has been arrested on attempted rape and sexual assault charges, according to police and reports from the New York Post and the Daily Mail.
The man, identified in reports as Robert, was let out on April 15 as part of an effort to reduce the spread of COVID 19 in the jail system. Police say that ten days later, on Saturday morning in Brooklyn, he grabbed a 58 year old woman near a supportive housing building and dragged her into a school parking lot. Police say she was able to fight him off and get away. She was taken to the hospital, and he was arrested at the scene.
According to the Daily Mail, he was previously held on an older rape charge involving another woman. The outlet reported that case was dropped after the woman chose not to cooperate with prosecutors, and that he was jailed at the time on an unrelated parole violation.
As of Sunday evening, the New York Post reported he was still awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. He is charged but has not been convicted, and it was not clear in reports whether he had an attorney to comment.
The case landed as New York remained the center of the outbreak in the United States, with about 2,000 inmates released from city jails since mid March to limit the spread of the virus among roughly 5,300 people held at Rikers.
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