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Riverside Rape Suspect Eyed In Other UWS Incidents
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 1, 2010
Modified Aug 1, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 1, 2010
Modified Aug 1, 2010
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The man suspected of raping a woman in Riverside Park last week after their picnic date may have a history of questionable behavior with women. The Manhattan DA's office is asking if anyone with information about suspect Hugues-Denver Akassy to contact the office and the Post reports, "Akassy allegedly struck three times since March 2009, tormenting his victims on the street, via e-mail, and even climbing a fire escape to one woman’s apartment." And a Post columnist who once went out with him also tells about her upsetting encounter with him.
Akassy, who is, according to his website, the host of the "most watched French-English syndicated program" in the world and is in jail right now, is accused of raping a Russian tourist he met last Sunday at the Time-Warner Center. He allegedly chatted her up and then asked to meet her again, ultimately taking her to Riverside Park and allegedly assaulting her. The previous charges against the 42-year-old stem from allegedly yelling at a woman on the Upper West Side who rebuffed his advances, allegedly emailing another Upper West Side woman (“You are a pathetic retarded girl") and trespassing when he was found on the roof outside a woman's window on West 75th Street.
The woman said, "I heard him outside. I stood at the window for a few minutes and then I saw his head pop up. I don't know what he was doing at that moment, but at 11:30 at night, a man on the roof of your building can't be up to anything good. I panicked." In the criminal complaint, Akassy claimed he was homeless and that's why he was sleeping on this cardboard "bed."
Post columnist Mandy Stadtmiller says that when she met Akassy in 2007, the "French-born TV reporter... hit on me as I shopped at the Fifth Avenue Apple store." During their first and only, they had wine at an Upper West Side bar—"Less than an hour into the date, he pressed himself into me and started kissing me intensely...
"Looking back, I shudder at how aggressive he was -- and I regret not listening to my internal warning bell." He convinced her to take a walk in Central Park, and it was such a terrible experience, which Stadtmiller later wrote about in her dating column. But she didn't tell the whole story:
What I didn't say then I'm ready to tell now. That night, when we walked to Central Park, when he took me to the water, his kissing very quickly led to his leading my hand down to his pants and begging me to touch him. I told him I didn't feel comfortable, but he was so aggressive. He kept unzipping his pants, making me touch him, and trying to put his hands down my dress. I remember telling him I wasn't going to have sex with him, and he was so insistent.
And then he tried to guilt me into doing it. He yelled at me and turned angry. He said I was a "sexy brat provocateur." I was stunned.
Now Stadtmiller feels lucky, "Learning about the Russian tourist who alleges that Akassy raped her Tuesday, the word to describe how I feel goes beyond 'horrified.' I've always imagined myself to be so tough, so untouchable, so essentially protected in Manhattan. People tell me I must have good guardian angels. I'm starting to believe them now."
Tagged
alleged rape
hugues akassy
hugues-denver akassy
rape
riverside park
Upper West Side
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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