BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO UP TO 18 YEARS IN PRISON FOR
SEXUALLY ATTACKING A 12-YEAR-OLD BOY IN VAN CORTLANDT PARK
IN 1998 - DEFENDANT WAS FIRST PERSON TO BE CHARGED IN A ‘JOHN DOE’
INDICTMENT IN THE BRONX

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 28-year-old Manhattan man has been sentenced to a maximum term of up to 18 years in prison for sexual offenses committed against a 12-year-old boy in Van Cortlandt Park in 1998.

Emmanuel Taveras, of 550 West 157th Street, Manhattan, pled guilty last month to one count of Sodomy in the 1st degree, admitting that he accosted his 12-year-old victim on April 23, 1998 as the child was going to school. State Supreme Court Justice John Moore sentenced Taveras a to term of 9 to 18 years imprisonment even though the “People” had recommended that the maximum sentence term, 12 ½ to 25 years imprisonment be imposed.

Taveras was the first defendant in Bronx County to be charged in a ‘John Doe’ indictment based on a DNA profile. Taveras was not arrested until November 2006 although the grand jury had indicted him as a ‘John Doe’ a year and a half earlier, in June, 2005. At the time of the grand jury’s action, Taveras’ only identity was the DNA profile that had been developed from the rape kit in the 1998 attack. He was later identified through CODIS (the Combined DNA Index System), a national data bank that links federal, state and local DNA data banks containing forensic biological evidence collected from crime victims. The profile was identified as a match for Taveras as a result of his conviction on a drug offense in Bergen County, New Jersey, at which time a sample of his DNA was uploaded to the national data base.

The 1998 sexual attack, for which Taveras was sentenced today, occurred in a wooded area in Van Cortlandt Park. A 12-year-old boy was standing at a bus stop at 251st street and Broadway when Taveras approached the child and lured him into the park by asking the boy to help him locate a baseball field. As they neared the wooded area, Taveras punched the child in the face and forced him to engage in oral and anal sex.

The case was prosecuted by Supervising Assistant District Attorney Rachel Singer.