A Manhattan grand jury has indicted a 37-year-old man accused of choking a woman until she lost consciousness and sexually assaulting her on a Midtown sidewalk last month, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Wednesday.
Anthony Smith, of NYC, is accused of attempting to forcibly rape a 21-year-old woman on Aug. 10 in Hell’s Kitchen, according to the indictment filed in New York State Supreme Court.
The grand jury charged him with two counts of attempted rape in the first degree, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, and two counts of strangulation.
“As alleged, Anthony Smith brutally choked a woman until she lost consciousness before sexually assaulting her,” Bragg said in a statement. “My Special Victims Division takes these crimes extremely seriously and will doggedly pursue justice in this case while centering the survivor’s needs.”
According to prosecutors, Smith spent about an hour in Midtown West in the early morning of Aug. 10 following women and putting his hand down his pants.
At about 3:30 a.m., Smith allegedly approached a woman from behind as she walked along West 47th Street near Eighth Avenue, placed her in a chokehold, and applied pressure until she passed out.
Prosecutors said Smith sexually assaulted the woman until she began to regain consciousness, then fled.
Smith was arrested Aug. 13 in his apartment following an investigation by Special Victims detectives, according to the DA. Attorneys representing Smith from the NY County Defender Services declined to comment on the indictment.
