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"Savage" Sex Offender Charged With Brutally Raping Actress
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2012
Modified Sep 23, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2012
Modified Sep 23, 2012
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Early Saturday morning, a 21-year-old actress was allegedly beaten and raped by a homeless man in Hudson River Park. Police say that 25-year-old Jonathan Stewart, a registered Level III sex offender, sat next to the woman on a bench near Harrison and West Streets at about 5:15 a.m.; he made conversation with her before he allegedly dragged her into the bushes, choked her, and raped her. “I was looking him in the eyes [asking] him, ‘How can you do this? Don’t you have a mother and sister?’ ” the Tribeca woman told the Daily News. “He was like, ‘They’re dead. Shut up’...It was a nightmare...It seemed like it lasted forever.”
The victim told the News she had gone to the water in search of solitude. “I was in kind of a sad mood and the river is calming,” she said, adding she often goes to that spot for sunrise. He approached her and started talking about her iPhone: “I could see his bloodshot eyes. He asked me what was wrong. I was just like, ‘I had a bad night.’ He started hiccupping and his eyes were really red.” After about 20-30 minutes, she was able to break free: “I started screaming,” she said. “I was completely naked and running in the middle of the park.”
Stewart, who fled on foot with no shirt and his pants down, was caught soon after. Police sources told the Post that Stewart lashed out in his jail cell: “He’s a savage. He looks like an animal...He was going nuts in his cell. He was smashing his head against the wall and screaming and yelling at police officers.”
Another source told them that Stewart raped a young female relative; he was freed from prison last year after serving a seven-year stint for robbing and assaulting a woman in 2004. Stewart has now been charged with rape, sex abuse, assault and forcible touching. This is the second time in the last two weeks that someone has been raped in a NYC park—a 42-year-old homeless "drifter" was accused of raping a 73-year-old woman in Central Park earlier this month.
Tagged
Hudson River Park
jonathan stewart
manhattan
nypd
police
rape
sexual assault
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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