GRAND JURY INDICTS CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL LAY TEACHER ON THREE COUNTS OF STATUTORY RAPE INVOLVING A 16 YEAR OLD STUDENT

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a grand jury has filed statutory rape charges against a 34 year old lay teacher at Cardinal Hayes High School. Mildred Colon, of 131 Broome Street, Manhattan, has been indicted on three counts of Rape in the 3rd degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child in connection with a series of sexual encounters with a 16 year old student.

The case was adjourned until Friday, October 25, 2002 when Colon is to be arraigned on the indictment in State Supreme Court, Part B. Rape in the 3rd degree is a Class E felony offense punishable by a maximum sentence of up to four years imprisonment on each count. Endangering the Welfare of a Child is a Class "A" misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum sentence of up to one year in jail.

The grand jury alleges that Colon, "being twenty years old or more, engaged in sexual intercourse with another person, to whom she is not married, less than seventeen years old." The defendant is accused of having sexual relations with the 16 year old boy on three separate occasions at the Capri Motel at 555 Hutchinson River Parkway, Bronx, New York. The crimes are alleged to have occurred on April 5, June 8, and June 14 of this year.

Colon was arrested on October 2, 2002 by Detective Investigators from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office after representatives of the Archdiocese of New York notified the Office that the child’s parents had come forward with the allegations.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Paula Branca-Santos of the Domestic Violence / Sex Offense Bureau.