Defendant approached both female victims under the pretense of needing help before attacking and sexually assaulting them
WHITE PLAINS, NY (June 4, 2024) — A Port Chester man was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for sexually assaulting two teenagers during two separate attacks in Rye.
The defendant, Richard Olmino, 22, pleaded guilty on April 1 to Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree and Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, both felonies. The defendant was also sentenced to 20 years of post-release supervision and is required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
What they are saying:
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah: “Westchester County is safer now with this defendant off our streets. No one should fear for their safety in their neighborhood or community. We thank the brave survivors who showed incredible strength in coming forward to work with our office and ensure this defendant was brought to justice.”
Victim Impact Statement 1: “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…. 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.”
Victim Impact Statement 2: “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.”
The Incidents:
On June 23, 2023, at approximately 12 a.m., the defendant asked for help from a 16-year-old female jogging in Rye Town Park, then took her phone and threw her to the ground as she tried to run away. The defendant told the victim he had a knife before exposing himself and sexually assaulting her. A park security guard interrupted the attack, causing the defendant to flee. Police recovered the defendant’s cell phone at the scene.
DNA evidence from the incident linked the defendant to a separate incident that took place on June 3, 2023 on Parsons Street in Rye, where, at approximately 1:36 a.m., the defendant approached an 18-year-old female who was walking home from an after-prom party, asked for help, then took her cell phone and threatened her before sexually assaulting her.
The City of Rye Police Department arrested the defendant at his Port Chester home on June 25, 2023, after police, with assistance from the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, used the defendant’s cell phone to identify and locate him.
The defendant, who has two open warrants in Connecticut, including one for public indecency, and a pending criminal case in Suffolk County, has remained remanded to Westchester County Jail since his arrest.
The case was before New York State Supreme Court Justice James McCarty in Westchester County Court and prosecuted by Special Prosecutions Deputy Division Chief Michelle Lopez and Sex Crimes Bureau Senior Assistant District Attorney Mollie O’Rourke with assistance from Senior Crime Analyst Toni Garcia and Clinical Trauma Therapist Stacey Nolan Meaney.
