Illegal Alien Rapes Teenager, Later Asks Her For a Date

Belleville man convicted of raping teenager
by William Kleinknecht/The Star-Ledger
Monday April 28, 2008, 6:23 PM

A Belleville man who has been linked by DNA to two separate sex assaults was convicted today of repeatedly raping a teenager on a desolate Newark street and then calling her later in the day for a date.

David Vasquez was arrested after the victim, with a Newark detective sitting by her side, pretended to be interested in seeing him again and set him up for what turned out to be a rendezvous with the police.

Vasquez, 29, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was convicted of three counts of second-degree sexual assault after a trial before Superior Court Judge Joseph Cassini.

The jurors acquitted him of aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping and weapons charges, despite the victim's claim that she was abducted at gunpoint.

"I'm glad they believed she was raped," said Deborah Freier, the assistant Essex County prosecutor who argued the case. "She went through a lot that night, and like any victim of a violent crime, she continues to suffer from that."

The victim, then a 17-year-old high school student, ended up outside Newark's Broad Street train station just after midnight on Dec. 1, 2005, after her train out of Manhattan was delayed.

She told police she was standing in front of the Burger King at Broad and Clay streets when Vasquez pulled up in a white 1991 Oldsmobile, asked her if she wanted a ride and then ordered her in the car at gunpoint.

He took her to a quiet street in an industrial area and subjected her to three different sex acts before taking her cell phone number and warning her not to tell anyone, Freier said.

Later that day, as she was in a room with Newark Detective Anthony Iemmello, Vasquez called her cell phone and she followed the detective's instructions to pretend she was interested in him romantically, the prosecutor said.

"When the phone rang, she was deathly afraid, she was very upset," Freier said. "But the detective told her to speak as if she wanted to see him, that she forgave him and did not tell anyone."

She suggested they meet at Rita's Ice, an ice cream parlor in Belleville. When Vasquez arrived, he found that his "date" was with Belleville Detective John McAloon and Detective Eric Serio of the prosecutor's office.

After Vasquez' DNA was submitted to the New Jersey State Police lab, it linked him to the May 2002 rape of a 21-year-old woman near St. Stephen elementary school in Kearny, authorities said.

He is scheduled to go on trial in Hudson County for that crime on June 2.

Cassini is to sentence him in the Newark case on June 20. Second-degree crimes carry a penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison, but Freier said she would ask Cassini to sentence him consecutively for each of the sex acts.

Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said federal immigration authorities are aware of Vasquez' illegal status but do not intend to deport him before he serves his prison time.
http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=6408
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/0 ... of_ra.html