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Alleged Jovial-Looking Pervert Is A Level-Three Sex Offender
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 16, 2012
Modified Nov 16, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 16, 2012
Modified Nov 16, 2012
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The man arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two young girls in a Queens apartment building's laundry room is a level three sex offender. WABC 7 reports, "Authorities said [Mario] Lopez is a Level 3 sex offender. He was just released from prison last January after serving 13 years behind bars for sex abuse and kidnapping."
Lopez, 52, was charged with two counts of burglary, two counts of sexual abuse, two counts of luring a child to commit a crime and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child for the Monday night incident. The Queens DA's office put out a release describing the alleged abuse, and it's awful: "District Attorney [Richard] Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, Lopez entered the residential building, located on Broadway in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, at around 7:00 p.m. on Monday, November 12, 2012, and stood near the elevators, waving to children and walking with the two female victims, who are four and nine years old, toward the building’s laundry room under the pretense that he needed help with his laundry. Once inside the room, it is alleged that Lopez sexually abused both young girls by slapping the nine-year-old’s buttocks and touching the four-year-old’s vagina under her clothes. Lopez then allegedly offered to buy candy for the nine-year-old victim before fleeing."
According to the Daily News, Lopez's parole officer recognized Lopez in the surveillance video. And what was Lopez in prison for? In 2000, he "approached a [25-year-old] woman walking down a Queens street and asked her for directions to Queens Center Mall. He convinced her to get into the car to help him get to the mall but instead drove to 36th St. and Vernon Blvd. where he sexually abused her, according to sources."
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mario lopez
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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