Woman Sexually Assaulted Near Maidstone Club
A Southampton man charged with sexually assaulting a 61-year-old woman on the beach in front of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton on Tuesday is also being charged in connection with incidents of sexual abuse and public lewdness going back three years, East Hampton Village police said.
Yesterday they charged John J. Giraldo, 30, of Montauk Highway with felony counts of attempted rape, assault, and unlawful imprisonment as well as public lewdness, a misdemeanor, and exposure, a violation. All charges were connected to Tuesday's assault.
Mr. Giraldo was taken to the Suffolk County jail in Riverside after arraignment yesterday before East Hampton Town Justice Catherine A. Cahill, who set cash bail at $100,000.
Police said the woman was walking alone on the beach near the Maidstone Club on Old Beach Lane at 8:45 a.m. when she was accosted by a naked man wearing a ski mask. He grabbed her from behind, pushed her to the ground, pushed her head into the sand, and then sexually assaulted her, according to police.
A 15-year-old cabana boy working for the Maidstone Club saw the struggle and cried out, causing the assailant to flee on foot across the dunes. Workers at the club called the police.
The woman was taken to Southampton Hospital, where she was checked for injuries and then released. She reportedly had cuts and bruises on her face.
After the assault, police set up road blocks leading to and from the East Hampton Village beaches and searched nearby dunes with two dogs from the Southampton Village K-9 Unit.
"He's been a thorn in our side," Chief Gerard Larsen of the village police said at a press conference yesterday afternoon at the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building. Fourteen cases of public lewdness were reported in the village last year, and Chief Larsen said Mr. Giraldo has been tied to at least two of them. Charges have not yet been filed in the two cases.
Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and police from Southampton Town and Village and the Village of Quogue attended the press conference, as did several East Hampton Village detectives, television crews, and reporters.
Detective Sgt. Herman Lamison of the Southampton Village Police said Mr. Giraldo would be charged later that day with felony counts of sexual abuse, assault, and unlawful imprisonment, as well as with public lewdness. These charges stem from an incident on May 12, 2004, in which a woman was sexually assaulted on the beach near Old Town Road in Southampton.
Southampton Town police also filed charges against Mr. Giraldo yesterday, Southampton Town Detective Sgt. Randy Hintze said at the press conference. Mr. Giraldo faces felony charges of sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment in connection with a June 8 incident at Mecox Beach in Water Mill in which a woman was grabbed, pushed to the ground, and sexually assaulted. He was also charged with public lewdness as a result of another incident on May 6.
Detective Jason McMunn of the Quogue Village Police said Mr. Giraldo would be charged with public lewdness there as well.
The Southampton and East Hampton Village Police Departments tried using female officers as "decoys" with no success. Chief Larsen said the suspect was at first caught in several lies while being questioned, then "made admissions" related to Tuesday's crime as well as those leading back to January 2002. Southampton Village police said they had a D.N.A. sample that had not yet been analyzed.
"It was good old-fashioned gumshoe police work," said Mayor Rickenbach, a former police officer, adding that East Hampton was known for its beaches and that "the police have restored our ability to enjoy them."
"We feel that this arrest has removed a dangerous individual from our community," Chief Larsen said in a press release. "Mr. Giraldo has been a person of interest in several other prior cases where investigations are continuing."
Mr. Giraldo was apprehended within hours of the alleged attack. East Hampton Village Police Lt. Michael Tracey and Chief Larsen would not elaborate on how they tracked him down, except to say that he was arrested at a construction site. Mr. Giraldo is a house painter with a Hampton Bays company.
The suspect, who is married and has a child in Colombia, has lived on the East End for six years. The county district attorney's office said a Legal Aid Society lawyer would be appointed to represent him.
East Hampton Town police said what appears to be an unrelated rape was reported in Montauk at 5:40 a.m. on Monday. They were still investigating and said they had no further information at press time.