Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment of a New York City police officer.

The defendant is Police Officer WILFREDO ROSARIO.  He is assigned to the 26th Precinct in Manhattan.  He was arrested yesterday and was arraigned today in New York State Supreme Court.   ROSARIO has been charged with sex abuse, official misconduct, unlawful imprisonment and attempted coercion.  The investigation is continuing and any potential victims should contact the District Attorney’s Office at 212-335-8905.

The investigation leading to today’s indictment charges that on March 26, 2008, while in uniform, ROSARIO approached a 27-year-old-woman and her young child while they were standing by their car.  He engaged her in conversation and said that he could provide her with an employment application for school crossing guards and some information about after-school programs she was interested in for her son.  He took her address and phone number, and, on March 30, 2008, after he went off-duty,  he went to her home and asked her to come down to his car.  He asked her to get in, which she did and then he drove away to a more secluded area along Riverside Drive.  He then sexually abused her.  She tried to get out of the car but he grabbed her and pulled her back into the car.  He then sexually abused her again.  He finally took her home.
 
In the course of investigating that incident, investigators determined that in March 2002, ROSARIO attempted to force a then 18-year-old girl into having sex with him.  He had discovered the young girl and a male friend in Riverside Park after the park had closed.  He told her he would let her go home, not tell her parents and not summons her if she had sex with him. 

The defendant has been charged with Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a class D felony which is punishable by up to seven years in prison, Official Misconduct and Unlawful Imprisonment which are both class A misdemeanors and Attempted Coercion in the Second Degree which is a class B misdemeanor. 

Assistant District Attorney Mark Crooks, who is assigned to the District Attorney’s Official Corruption Unit, is in charge of the case under the supervision of Unit Chief Richard Buckheit and Assistant District Attorney Lisa Friel, Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit.

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