A Harlem man has been sentenced for raping a woman he met on an online dating website.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said 36-year-old Kenneth Washington was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 20 years of post-release supervision on Wednesday.
“This defendant used the Internet to prey on a woman who was searching for romance. He sexually assaulted her and stole her car,” Clark said. “This case is a warning to use caution on dating websites, where people may not be what they seem.”
According to the district attorney’s office, Washington had met the victim in person on Oct. 9, 2014, after first meeting her on PlentyOfFish.com.
About a week into dating, the district attorney’s office said, the pair went to an apartment on Walton Avenue in the Bronx, where Washington left the victim and returned several hours later with another woman.
Washington then sexually assaulted and raped the victim before forcing her into her rental car and driving around erratically for hours while the other woman held the victim in place, the district attorney’s office said.
Eventually, the victim jumped from the moving car and called 911, according to the district attorney’s office.
Three days later, the the district attorney’s office said, Washington was driving drunk in the victim’s rental car and crashed into the scaffolding of a building. He fled into a nearby subway station but was later caught, the district attorney’s office said.
Washington was convicted on Feb. 2 of reckless endangerment, rape, unlawful imprisonment, operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, and other charges.
