Two of three teenage suspects accused of brutally attacking a woman on Eldridge Street early Monday morning were arraigned yesterday. Eric Pek and Emanuel Burrows, both 16, are being held on $100,000 bail. They face adult charges of sexual assault and robbery.
According to police, the teenagers met their 33-year-old victim at an internet cafe located at 75 Eldridge St. at around 4 a.m. The criminal complaint, obtained by Channel 4, states that security camera footage from the cafe shows the suspects groping the woman and then dragging her out the door. The woman’s next memory was being surrounded by the teens in a stairwell. After the vicious attack, she was left alone and realized her apartment keys, ID and cell phone were missing. The criminal complaint alleges that one of the suspects admitted to having sex with the woman. A second suspect allegedly said he tried to have sexual intercourse with her.
(NYPD video via Gothamist).
Security camera footage shows three teenagers coming inside the woman’s Eldridge Street building and walking up the stairs shortly after 5 a.m. Less than a minute later, according to the timestamp, they ran back downstairs, apparently scared off by someone inside the apartment.
Yesterday the New York Times reported that the victim, beaten, bloodied and disoriented, came inside a 24-hour deli at Eldridge and Canal Street to get help. And a worker at the internet cafe told a reporter that the business is safe — not the type of place where violent incidents have occurred. The employee said police believe the woman was taken to a nearby park after being pulled out of the cafe. Cops said the victim was intoxicated.
The teens reportedly live at Boys Town, a group home in Brooklyn. A private attorney representing one of the suspects, Albert Dayan, told Channel 4 he is skeptical of any alleged admission of guilt by his client. “This would not be the first time that a young man was coerced by police into making statements and admissions that ultimately prove to be false,” he said.
Pek is charged with rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and petit larceny. Burrows is charged with rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and attempted petit larceny. The third suspwct, 16-year-old Sanat Asliev, is charged with attempted rape, assault and attempted burglary.
The woman was hospitalized, for severe bruising and swelling. She was reported in stable condition.
Lock them up and throw away the keys.
The teens reportedly live at Boys Town, a group home in Brooklyn. A private attorney representing one of the suspects, Albert Dayan, told Channel 4 he is skeptical of any alleged admission of guilt by his client. “This would not be the first time that a young man was coerced by police into making statements and admissions that ultimately prove to be false,” he said.
REALLY???? Was the video where it SHOWS them going to the victim’s house coerced by the police too?