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Port Chester resident Richard Olmino was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for the two incidents, which both happened in Rye in June 2023, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Monday, June 3.
According to the DA's Office, the first incident Olmino was linked to occurred on June 23, 2023, around 12 a.m., when he asked for help from a 16-year-old jogger in Rye Town Park. Olmino then took her phone, threw it to the ground as she tried to run away, and told her he had a knife before exposing himself and sexually assaulting her.
Soon after, a park security guard interrupted the attack, prompting Olmino to run away. Police later found his cell phone at the scene.
Thanks to DNA evidence recovered during the investigation into this incident, Olmino was also linked to another incident that happened on June 3, 2023. At around 1:40 a.m. on this date, Olmino approached an 18-year-old woman walking home from an after-prom party, asked for help, and then proceeded to take her cell phone and threaten her before sexually assaulting her.
Olmino was eventually arrested at his Port Chester home on June 25, 2023, after authorities used his cell phone to identify and find him. He has been remanded to Westchester County Jail since his arrest, the DA's Office said.
In addition to his crimes in Westchester, Olmino also has two open warrants in Connecticut, including one for public indecency. He also has a pending criminal case in Suffolk County.
Both of Olmino's victims addressed him in court during his sentencing proceedings:
"No matter how much I begged or how hard I cried, you showed me no mercy. In fact, you threatened to harm me.... I thought I was going to die there, alone, in the town that I loved...." said the first victim, who continued, "What you did was heinous, but it did not break me. I’m here today, to look you in the face, and voice everything I could not that night.”
The second victim also read a statement: "You witnessed, preyed upon, and took full advantage of my kindness, empathy, and generosity to you, and in that moment, you made something so beautiful about me, seem so ugly....What happened wasn’t my fault, and I will never stop being kind, empathetic, and generous. That is something you will never ruin in me.”
Olmino pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual act and first-degree sexual abuse on Monday, April 1. In addition to his sentence, he will be required to serve 20 years of post-release supervision and will be required to register as a sex offender when he is released.
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