Thread: 'Cleared' in rape - & facing deport

'Cleared' in rape - & facing deport

By DAN MANGAN, LARRY CELONA and REBECCA ROSENBERG
Last Updated: 9:56 AM, August 8, 2011
Posted: 12:46 AM, August 8, 2011

Charges against a Brooklyn livery driver who was arrested in one rape and identified as a suspect in three other sex assaults are expected to be dropped after cops accepted his alibi and the real pervert struck again while the cabby was in jail, sources told The Post.

"They made a huge mistake and stopped my life for no reason," William Giraldo told The Post.

Still, his ordeal may not be over -- the 24-year-old faces the threat of deportation for overstaying his visa unless his recent marriage to a US citizen convinces a judge to let him stay.

Defense lawyer Heriberto Cabrera said the case began to unravel on June 25, while Giraldo was still behind bars.

A fifth, similar sex attack occurred in Sunset Park that day, which police believe was the work of the thug who committed the four other assaults.

"It certainly helps to clear him," Cabrera said. "All indications are that the next time it's in court [Sept. 8], the case should be dismissed."

Cabrera added, "I feel bad for the kid. He got caught up in a pretty bad situation."

Giraldo had walked into a station house in June after cops released a Dunkin' Donuts surveillance video showing a man inside the store on June 4 at the same time as the 28-year-old rape victim.

After she left, her attacker choked her and stole her purse in the lobby of her Sunset Park building.

Giraldo told police he was the man on the video but insisted he never attacked the woman, saying he was on his way to pick up a fare at JFK Airport.

But he was busted for rape, robbery, burglary, sex abuse and assault and held in lieu of $200,000 bail after the victim picked him out of a lineup.

Although the three victims from the similar assaults failed to identify him, police nonetheless believed he was the fiend responsible for those attacks.

On June 10, just a day after telling a Post reporter, "I'm innocent" during an interview on Rikers Island, Giraldo was released without bail when prosecutors told a judge they were not going to be able to indict him by a statutory deadline.

Sources told The Post that cops decided his alibi was legit, and he's no longer a suspect in any of the assaults.

But Giraldo didn't walk free that day -- he was taken to an immigration jail in New Jersey for having overstayed a one-year visa issued in 1999, when he emigrated from Colombia.

But he was released on $7,500 bond on July 13. Shortly afterward, he married his fiancée, Sondra. The wedding had originally been scheduled for June 8 -- the day he was arraigned.

Sources said that although Giraldo might be deported because of his illegal status, his marriage to a American citizen could lead an immigration judge to cut him a break.

Additional reporting by Perry Chiaramonte

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/broo ... pEVXExhtuJ

he was taken to an immigration jail in New Jersey for having overstayed a one-year visa issued in 1999, when he emigrated from Colombia.

Deport his butt! He's had ELEVEN years here, he's obviously been working way past the ONE year allowed to him. I don't give a hoot if he did marry an American... deport him and let them work out from Columbia!