Charged in ’95 rape
On Fri., May 1, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., announced the indictment of Joseph Giardala, 44, following a recent DNA cold-case hit, for raping a young woman in the West Village in January 1995. Giardala was charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with rape, attempted rape and robbery in the first degree, among other charges.
“If New York City had not taken the initiative to tackle its rape-kit backlog more than a decade ago, this victim’s kit may never have been tested, and this defendant never apprehended,” said Vance. “Appropriately, the prosecutor handling this case is the very same person who indicted the defendant’s ‘John Doe’ DNA profile in 2003, a groundbreaking strategy at a time when New York State still had a statute of limitations on high-level felony sex crimes, including rape in the first degree.
“As this case demonstrates, DNA evidence solves crimes across state lines and across decades. That is why my office has committed $35 million to eliminating backlogs of untested rape kits across the country,” Vance said. “We are urging any jurisdiction with untested rape kits to apply for funding by June 1.”
According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, Giardala is charged with attacking a 25-year-old woman shortly after midnight on January 23, 1995, as she walked home from a movie theater in the West Village. Giardala allegedly forced the victim into the vestibule of a nearby building, and then robbed and raped her at knifepoint. The victim immediately went to St. Vincent’s Hospital following the attack, where the elements of a sexual assault evidence kit, or “rape kit,” were collected. That kit remained untested until the launch of New York City’s Rape Kit Backlog Project in 2000, through which more than 17,000 previously untested rape kits were tested and analyzed for DNA evidence.
A DNA profile developed from the victim’s rape kit was uploaded to the F.B.I.’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in 2001, but did not immediately match a pre-existing DNA profile. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office presented the criminal case to a New York Supreme Court Grand Jury in 2003, obtaining a “John Doe” indictment listing the perpetrator by his DNA profile. Earlier this year, in an unrelated matter, Giardala’s DNA profile was entered into CODIS in Florida and matched the DNA profile listed on the “John Doe” indictment.
Giardala was charged with rape, robbery, sodomy, attempted rape and sexual abuse, all in the first degree.
Between 2000 and 2003, New York City sent out roughly 17,000 rape kits for testing, creating a model for other large cities to test their own backlogged rape kits. In Manhattan alone, more than 3,700 untested rape kits were analyzed for DNA evidence, generating more than 1,300 DNA profiles. The Manhattan D.A.’s Office pioneered efforts to indict the unidentified DNA profiles developed from these previously dormant rape kits as “John Does,” thereby stopping the clock on the statute of limitations. In total, the Manhattan D.A. filed 49 indictments based on cold-case hits from backlogged kits.
Vicious BBQ gay bash
A diner at Dallas BBQ in Chelsea was hit over the head with a wooden chair in an alleged bias attack on Tues., May 5. The incident happened just after 11 p.m. at the Dallas BBQ at Eighth Ave. near 23rd St., according to police.
Jonathan Snipes, 32, and his boyfriend Ethan York-Adams, 25, were reportedly celebrating Cinco de Mayo there when Snipes got a text about a death in his family. He told DNAinfo that as they were exiting, they accidentally knocked over a drink.
“A table near us audibly started making pretty gross comments about the two of us like, ‘White faggots, spilling drinks,’ ” Snipes said. “I don’t let anyone talk to me like that. I went over there and asked, ‘What did you say about us?’”
Things escalated and got physical, and a large man with a shaved head and beard from the table reportedly knocked Snipes down and allegedly called him “faggot” while kicking his face and spine. The attack reportedly knocked one of Snipes’s teeth loose, snapped the cartilage in his ear, and left him with head bruising.
York-Adams got Snipes up, at which point the other man rushed over and hit Snipes over the head with the chair. The attackers then fled the scene.
The incident reportedly will be investigated as a hate crime.
Councilmember Corey Johnson released a statement, saying, “I am appalled and angered by the senseless act of anti-L.G.B.T. hate violence that was perpetrated last night at a restaurant in my district. The fact that this attack took place in Chelsea, a place known around the world for its acceptance of all people, is particularly outrageous. There must be zero tolerance of hate crimes, the most insidious of crimes since they target entire communities of people.
“I urge the perpetrators of this act to turn themselves in immediately,” Johnson said. “My office is in communication with the New York Police Department and the NYC Anti Violence Project. I urge anyone with information about this case to contact Crime Stoppers at 646-610-6806.”
Slashes straphanger
It turned ugly when a woman ignored a man who tried chatting her up at the Brooklyn Bridge subway station on Sat., May 2, around 6 p.m., police said.
The man, later described to police as around age 35, 5-foot-6-inches tall and 165 pounds, tried to engage the woman, 34, in conversation. When she ignored him, he spat at her — and she just laughed. But then he whipped out a sharp instrument and slashed her on the arm before fleeing the station.
The woman was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where she was treated and then released, police said. The suspect wore a Yankees cap, black sunglasses, a blue A-shirt, dark jeans, a medallion on a chain around his neck and a dark backpack. He had a light moustache and appeared to be Hispanic.
Apple picker
Police said than on Sat., May 2, at about 11:50 p.m., a man illegally entered a 43-year-old man’s apartment on Stanton St. through the living-room window and removed an Apple iPhone 6 smart phone.
– Lincoln Anderson
