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The 47-year-old defendant, who prosecutors are not naming in order to protect the victim’s identity, arrived in New York on an extradition flight from El Salvador on Wednesday, Nov. 1.
It came 20 years after a Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on multiple sex crimes in September 2003.
According to investigators, in March 2002, the man locked his then 14-year-old stepdaughter in a room and forcibly raped her while her mother was at work.
He allegedly threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone.
The repeated rape and sexual abuse continued until June 2003, when the victim told a friend, prosecutors said.
That friend then recorded a conversation between herself and the defendant in which he admitted to sexually abusing the girl, according to prosecutors.
The man also reportedly confessed to taking the girl to get an abortion after she became pregnant.
When the man’s wife confronted him with the recording, he fled from the United States before police were contacted.
In 2021, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office got a tip that the defendant was living in El Salvador. The agency began extradition proceedings to bring him back to Suffolk County with the help of the US Marshals Service.
“Thanks to our partnerships with law enforcement agencies here and around the world, our message is clear to those who would prey upon children: There is no safe place for you to hide,” said Suffolk County DA Raymond Tierney.
“No matter how long it takes, we will do everything in our power to find you and bring you back to Suffolk County to be held accountable for your actions.”
The man was arraigned in Suffolk County Court Thursday, Nov. 2, on the following charges:
- Four counts of first-degree rape (felony)
- Sodomy (felony)
- Four counts of sexual abuse (felony)
- Endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
He was taken to the Suffolk County jail without bail and is scheduled to appear back in court on Friday, Dec. 15.
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