A homeless man who was released from prison last month was charged on Wednesday in the rape of a 27-year-old woman inside the bathroom of a Kips Bay bar over the weekend.
Rodney Stover, 48, was charged with rape, predatory sexual assault, a criminal sex act, and assault, police said.
Stover was not a customer at the Turnmill Bar at the time, and apparently made a bee-line for the bathroom where he attacked the woman on Saturday night, police said.
Stover, whose most recent address is a men’s homeless shelter just a few blocks from the bar, is accused of grabbing the woman by the throat as soon as she walked in to the basement stall about 7:45 p.m. and raping her there before walking out.
Someone recognized Stover from the surveillance video police released shortly after the attack. Turnmill has been very helpful and cooperative throughout the investigation, police said.
Stover has been arrested on rape charges twice before — once in 1990 and again in 1992.
He was released from prison on Feb. 14, police said.
Stover was awaiting arraignment Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
