Dawson cousin pleads
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., on Wed., June 29, announced the guilty plea of Juan Scott, 28, for three separate sexual assaults in the East Village in 2014.
Scott, a relative of actress Rosario Dawson, pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to burglary in the first degree as a sexually motivated felony and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree.
He is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 6. The judge promised him a sentence of 14 years. The D.A. had asked for 20.
“Juan Scott sexually assaulted three young women in their East Village homes over a span of only five months,” Vance said. “Sexual predators are often repeat offenders… .”
As admitted in the defendant’s guilty plea, just before midnight on June 2, 2014, Scott followed a stranger into her apartment building in the East Village and sexually assaulted her. The 23-year-old woman escaped and Scott fled the scene.
In a separate incident, in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 2014, Scott and a woman he previously dated got into an argument inside her East Village apartment. Scott pushed her onto her bed, sexually assaulted her, and slammed her head against a wall.
In a third incident, on Oct. 17, 2014, at around 4:30 a.m., Scott followed a stranger into the elevator in her Stuyvesant Town apartment building. Once inside the elevator, he pushed the 20-year-old woman to the ground and sexually assaulted her. Multiple residents of the apartment building heard the attack and came out of their apartments, causing the defendant to flee the scene. The incident was captured on video, including the attack in the elevator, plus his fleeing by jumping from Stuy Town onto a tree on E. 14th St., shimmying down and running off south into the East Village.
Scott is a cousin of Rosario Dawson and was living for the summer with the Dawson clan in the former East Village squat at 544 E. 13th St. where the actress grew up. The building has been vacated and is being renovated as affordable housing, and the former residents will be allowed to return when the job is done.
An anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers identified Scott as the perpetrator and police tracked him to his parents’ home on Long Island.
Fearless Jeep jump
A woman told police that on Sun., June 26, at 7:40 a.m., she heard the car alarm in her 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee going off and went outside to check on it.
Across the street from 19 Commerce St., she observed a man in the back of her vehicle. She ordered the man to get out of it and he refused. The victim had her car keys in hand, which activated the push-button start and the man jumped into the driver’s seat and was able to start the vehicle. The victim jumped into the Jeep as it pulled away and it came to a stop at the corner of Greenwich and Christopher Sts.
Police arrested Christal Mccllech, 28, for felony grand larceny auto.
Houston head-butt
Don’t ask for apologies at Houston Hall. On Fri., June 24, at 11:15 p.m. at the Hudson Square beer hall, at 222 W. Houston St., a man told police that he asked another man to apologize for spilling a drink on his girlfriend. The second man then head-butted the first man, police said. The victim had a cut and bruising under his left eye.
The attacker fled on foot but was stopped at 178 W. Houston St. by Houston Hall security. Steven W. Carlson, 27, was arrested for misdemeanor assault.
Christopher conflict
On Sun., June 22, at 2:10 a.m., two men reportedly got into a dispute that ended badly on the corner of Christopher and Bedford Sts. Police said a man got into a verbal dispute with the 49-year-old male victim. The first man became irate and punched the victim in the left eye, causing cuts and injuries to his face. The victim’s glasses were also broken.
Niquan Edmunson, 24, was arrested for misdemeanor assault.
Skyy-high scuffle
An allegedly boozy and belligerent woman was busted at Christopher and Washington Sts. on Sun., June 26, at 9:15 p.m. An officer observed the apparently intoxicated woman swinging a glass bottle of Skyy vodka around in a public place, causing an unsafe condition.
After the cop removed the vodka bottle from her, he said the woman then shoved with two hands another officer, causing her to stumble. Police arrested Karina Rivera, 26, for misdemeanor obstructing governmental administration.
Emily Siegel
and Lincoln Anderson
