Hackensack man sentenced to 17 years in prison for raping several prostitutes
A 32-year-old man was sentenced to seventeen (17) years in state prison for raping several women, including at least three prostitutes. According to the Bergen Record and NJ.com, the defendant landed in police custody in September 2010 after a woman reported being sexually assaulted in South Hackensack. Using DNA evidence, he was soon linked to two other rapes in Paterson and another assault in South Hackensack, dating back to late 2007. Superior Court Judge James Guida sentenced to defendant to 17 years in prison at the Bergen County Superior Court located in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Rape charges in New Jersey are governed by the aggravated sexual assault statute N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2 which provides:
§ 2C:14-2. Aggravated Sexual Assault.
a. An actor is guilty of aggravated sexual assault if he commits an act of sexual penetration with another person under any one of the following circumstances:
(1) The victim is less than 13 years old;
(2) The victim is at least 13 but less than 16 years old; and
(a) The actor is related to the victim by blood or affinity to the third degree, or
(b) The actor has supervisory or disciplinary power over the victim by virtue of the actor’s legal, professional, or occupational status, or
(c) The actor is a resource family parent, a guardian, or stands in loco parentis within the household;
(3) The act is committed during the commission, or attempted commission, whether alone or with one or more other persons, of robbery, kidnapping, homicide, aggravated assault on another, burglary, arson or criminal escape;
(4) The actor is armed with a weapon or any object fashioned in such a manner as to lead the victim to reasonably believe it to be a weapon and threatens by word or gesture to use the weapon or object;
(5) The actor is aided or abetted by one or more other persons and the actor uses physical force or coercion;
(6) The actor uses physical force or coercion and severe personal injury is sustained by the victim;
(7) The victim is one whom the actor knew or should have known was physically helpless, mentally defective or mentally incapacitated.