Soho rapist convicted
A man charged with raping and assaulting a 19-year-old woman outside her Soho apartment building in May 2008 has been found guilty on all counts, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced on Tuesday.
Andres Suarez, 30, was convicted of predatory sexual assault, rape in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree, and sexual abuse in the first degree.
In the early morning hours of May 28, 2008, Suarez began following the woman onto the subway at 14th St., and continued following her off the train and all then way back to her Prince St. apartment building, the D.A. said. When she opened the door to her lobby, Suarez slipped into the building and followed the woman up to her apartment before eventually dragging her out into the building’s courtyard and raping her at knifepoint.
Suarez is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 12.
Greenhouse glass smash
Hey, buddy…she’s taken!
One man found that out the hard way when he danced with the wrong girl in a trendy Hudson Square nightclub, and her jealous boyfriend smashed a drinking glass over his head.
Witnesses at Greenhouse, 150 Varick St., told police that Jacob Saperstein, 22, busted the glass over the 23-year-old man’s head around 1 a.m. on Thurs., Nov. 22, causing a deep cut that required stitches. After arriving on the scene to arrest Saperstein for assault, cops also said they found alleged cocaine in his jacket and wallet.
None of the witnesses seemed to have told police about the dancing that caused the attack — so maybe the victim was just taking another chance to brag about his moves when he later told them to include it in their report.
Movado bandito
One would think that Coach, the purveyor of fine handbags and other accessories, exudes an air of class and sophistication. But at the designer’s Soho store, the most noticeable feeling as of late seems to be something more like, “Take all the watches and run!”
Coach’s 143 Prince St. location was hit twice last week — and while it’s unclear if both thefts were carried out by the same perpetrator, each incident resulted in the disappearance of the same brand of luxury wristwatches, with total losses for the store of more than $3,200.
On Nov. 19, a store employee told police that an unknown man stepped inside around 7:30 p.m., snatched three Movado watches off a display table and then fled the scene.
The next day, another employee told a very similar tale about a theft at 6:30 p.m. — except this time, it was six Movado watches. After the second theft, the employee was also able to describe the bandit as a white Hispanic male, around 5 feet 8 inches tall and 250 pounds, wearing a black jacket, blue jogging pants and white sneakers.
Teenage attacker
A teenager was arrested for assaulting and attempting to rob a 60-year-old man on a Soho sidewalk shortly after midnight on Nov. 20, according to police.
The victim told police he was standing outside Aquagrill restaurant at 210 Spring St. when the suspect — later identified as Erroll Rhodes, 16 — approached and began repeatedly punching him in the head, leaving him with cuts and bruises to the side of his face.
Rhodes then allegedly started to go through the older man’s pockets and take whatever he could find. But by that time, officers had responded to the incident, and they quickly handcuffed Rhodes.
And a side of pepper spray
At first, employees of the McDonald’s near W. 14th St. on Seventh Ave. probably thought this guy was just craving a lunchtime burger — but then he went crazy and pepper-sprayed one of them.
Eric Ross, 27, walked in the fast-food joint shortly after noon, but things started getting strange after he declined to order and instead started blocking the cash registers, witnesses said. Ross continued to stand in the way despite being asked to leave multiple times by McDonald’s staff — and when an employee finally tried to escort him out, Ross pulled out the pepper-spray and fired, according to the police report.
After cops arrived on the scene, Ross was charged with assault.
Crappy counterfeiter
If you’re going to try and spend a load of fake cash, maybe you should at least make it look believable.
It didn’t turn out that way for Anthony Watson, 23, who was arrested for shelling out three counterfeit hundreds at the Duane Reade at 24 E. 14th St. near Union Square on Nov. 22.
Watson walked in around 11 a.m. and tried to buy a $200 gift card and a stick of deodorant with the wad of bogus “Benjamins,” police said. But store employees could tell that something was up when they realized that the bills didn’t look quite right, and they immediately reported the incident.
When cops showed up to inspect further, they saw that Watson’s hundreds lacked proper textured markings, and that the center of the bills showed a doubled image of Franklin when shown through light, along with other clearly false elements.
Watson was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument. According to a source at the Sixth Precinct, police also called the U.S. Secret Service to start an investigation, as is generally the case with counterfeit currency.
Sam Spokony
