Guilty of rape
A State Supreme Court jury on Wed., Nov. 5, convicted John Hamlett of burglary, robbery and raping two women in two separate incidents in 2006 in the same building at E. Third St. and Avenue B. He is to be sentenced on Nov. 19, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Hamlett, an East Village resident at the time of the rapes, had been convicted of a prior sexual assault of a handicapped woman in 1996 and was a registered sex offender. He was charged in the 2006 cases with breaking into two apartments in the building 13 days apart.
In the first incident, he pushed his way into the first victim’s apartment and raped her at knifepoint. Two weeks later, he entered another apartment through a fire escape when the victim was not at home and stole a checkbook. A few days later, he gained entrance to the apartment when the victim was home by claiming he had found the checkbook; after pushing into the apartment he raped the victim.
He was arrested after he tried to use the victims’ credit cards, according to police.
Bus office bandits
Five masked robbers stormed into the third-floor office of a Chinatown bus company on Sunday afternoon Nov. 9, bound five staff members, including the owner, at gunpoint and made off with more than $27,000, police said.
Wearing ski masks, the robbers entered Golden Express Co., 15 Division St., a low-cost bus service to Atlantic City, shortly after 12:30 p.m., announced a holdup and demanded to know where the safe was. They bound the victims with duct tape and forced them into a back room. One of the robbers sliced the face of the owner, May Chow, with a box cutter as he was binding her, according to a New York Times article.
There were no arrests as of Tuesday afternoon Nov. 11.
Choked by mugger
Police arrested Jamal Williams, 19, and charged him with mugging a victim on Washington Square West on Thursday afternoon Nov. 6. The victim threw his cash to the sidewalk after the suspect put him in a chokehold from behind, according to reports. Williams then flung the victim to the sidewalk, grabbed the cash and fled. But police soon arrested him near the scene.
Camera cad
Police arrested Noe Rosas, 29, at 7:40 p.m. Fri., Oct. 31, in the Union Square subway station and charged him with using a cell-phone video camera to film up a woman’s skirt. Rosas, a Bronx resident, was charged with unlawful surveillance and was being held for arraignment this week.
Attacked, stabbed
Police arrested three men shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tues., Nov. 4, and charged them with gang assault for attacking a man at Christopher and Washington Sts. The suspects, Orrin Harris, 47; Sinyn Allen, 34, and Jhirmick Cabbagestalk, 26, were charged with attacking the victim, who was talking to a woman at the time. They punched and kicked him in the face and abdomen, and then Harris handed a knife to Cabbagestalk, who stabbed the victim in the abdomen and the arm.
The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital and treated for internal injuries. Police arrested the trio soon after the incident but did not know what provoked the attack.
Low point
An employee of The Point NYC, a clothing boutique at 37A Bedford St., told police that a man who came into the store at 7:30 p.m. Tues., Nov. 4, was able to grab an envelope from the top of the cash register after he distracted her for a short time. She didn’t realize the envelope, which had $3,000 cash and two credit cards, was missing until two hours later.
D.W.I.
Police charged Clyde Bennett, 45, with driving while intoxicated at 12:35 a.m. Wed., Nov. 5, after he got into an accident while driving the wrong way on one-way W. 10th St. at Bleecker St. He refused to take an alcohol breath test.
Police charged Jennifer Medina with driving while intoxicated at 3:49 a.m. Sun., Nov. 9, after she made a left turn on a steady red light from Fifth Ave. to E. 12th St. She registered .17 on a field alcohol breath test. The legal threshold is .08.
Police stopped Melinda Marki, 43, driving the wrong way on 10th Ave. at W. 14th St. at 1:09 a.m. Tues., Nov. 4. She registered .155 on a field alcohol breath test and was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Village burglar
Police arrested Valentine Guerrero, 41, inside 15 Jones St. at 9:22 p.m. Tues., Nov. 4, and charged him with burglary. Guerrero was also charged for trying to force open an apartment window in an adjacent building. A few days later, police connected him with breaking in to an apartment on Waverly Pl. on Sept. 14, saying he climbed through a bedroom window while the woman resident, 24, was in another room watching television; the victim later discovered that her laptop and watch had been stolen. Guerrero has been convicted twice before for attempted burglary.
E.R. excision
A Queens man told police that $57 had been stolen from his pants pocket while he was in the St. Vincent’s Hospital emergency room between 1:45 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sat., Nov. 1. The victim said he took a cab to the hospital to be treated for a cut and knew that he had $70 left after paying the fare. When he got his clothes back after being treated he found only $13 in his pants pocket, according to police reports.
Cell phone gone
A woman patron of Tenjune, a lounge at 26 Little W. 12th St., told police that her cell phone was stolen from her bag while she was in the bar around 2 a.m. Sat., Nov. 1. She called her mobile number later and a woman answered and said, “Yes, I have your cell phone.” A man then got on the phone and said, “No, we’re not shipping your phone back.”
Albert Amateau
