The teenager who allegedly raped an 82-year-old Brighton Beach woman was arrested and arraigned in criminal court on July 17.
Asa Robert, 18, was held without bail and charged with a litany of offenses — including rape, robbery, and assault — just before midnight after he led police on a wild chase early that morning around Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.
Cops nearly cuffed Robert late on July 16, but he escaped arrest by jumping out a window and running down the fire escape of his girlfriend’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, before his aunt tipped police off to his location hours later, according to a report in the New York Post. Robert allegedly broke into a church and a stranger’s apartment before police finally rounded him up early Friday morning, the Post reported.
On on July 13, Robert allegedly snuck into the Brighton Beach home of an 82-year-old woman through an unlocked door at 1:40 am when the woman was sweeping outside, according to police. He allegedly hid in the bedroom before pressing a knife to the woman’s face and demanding money, but she did not have any, according to police reports. Cops say Robert stayed in the apartment for several hours and then allegedly raped and sodomized the woman at about 4 am, slamming her against the wall and choking her.
The alleged rape occurred only after Robert learned the victim was an observant Jew, according to Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay), who spoke with the victim and her family on July 15. Deutsch said the victim also told him that Robert allegedly forced her to swear on the Bible that she would not call the police before fleeing the scene.
Deutsch had previously offered a $5,000 reward for any information leading to Robert’s arrest, and is pressing the police and the district attorney to charge Robert with a bias crime.
“This horrific crime has shaken our community to its core,” Deutsch said on July 16. “I am shocked and disgusted at the heinous and barbaric nature of this crime against an elderly woman.”
Robert was also charged with assault, trespassing, and resisting arrest for a March 22 incident when he allegedly jumped a subway station turnstile and attacked a police officer. He already has a lengthy rap sheet that includes multiple robberies, grand larceny, gang assault, trespassing, and a sex act with an 11-year-old when he was 9-years-old.
His attorney, Samuel Karliner, did not respond to requests for comment.
