Special Victims Division 

D.A. Bragg created the Office’s first Special Victims Division, elevating the role of our Intimate Partner & Sexual Violence Bureau, and the Child Abuse, Human Trafficking, and Elder Abuse Units. The Division includes specially trained Assistant D.A.s, as well as investigators, analysts, and social workers who work exclusively on these extremely sensitive cases. 

In line with its mission to center survivors, the Special Victims Division is helmed by leaders with expertise in providing services to survivors and implementing trauma-informed policies. 

Notable cases: 

• May 2024: Christopher Villacis was sentenced to 20 years-to-life in state prison for holding his former neighbor captive in his East Village apartment and repeatedly beating, strangling, and sexually assaulting her over the course of three days.
• May 2024: We announced the indictment of Ellow Williams for allegedly strangling and raping a woman after following her home. “The crimes charged in this indictment are among the most brutal imaginable,” said D.A. Bragg.
• May 2024: Terence Banks was convicted at trial for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl skateboarding on Randall’s Island and raping a 47-year-old woman, less than 100 yards from the first attack.
• May 2024: We announced the indictments of four individuals for conspiring to traffic a 14-year-old girl from November 2023 to February 2024. 
• April 2024: Women deserve to walk home without fearing that they are being followed or that they will be sexually assaulted. We indicted a man for allegedly following a 20-year-old woman into her apartment and attempting to sexually assaulting her.
• April 2024: We announced the indictment of a man for allegedly raping an acquaintance while she slept. “Acquaintance rape is perhaps the least commonly understood form of sexual assault, but by far the most common element in the cases we see each and every day,” said D.A. Bragg.
• March 2024: Dennis Weaver was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in state prison for sexually assaulting his girlfriend at knifepoint after she tried to end their relationship and threatening her from jail to prevent her from cooperating with law enforcement.
• January 2024: Christopher Macias, a club promoter, was sentenced to 18 years-to-life in prison for raping two women in his car in September 2021. “Christopher Macias abused his power as a supervisor to assault two survivors, scarring them with trauma that they face to this day,” said D.A. Bragg.
• January 2024: We announced the labor trafficking indictment of an apartment super who allegedly raped and assaulted an undocumented immigrant from Paraguay who cleaned apartments in a Flatiron building where he worked.
• January 2024: Elvis Nina Pichardo was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for sexually assaulting three people in Inwood Hill Park in the span of one hour.
• December 2023: We announced the indictment of Albert Brown for allegedly sexually assaulting and robbing a woman at gunpoint on a street in East Harlem.
• November 2023: Benvontay Fogler, a youth flag football coach, was indicted for allegedly paying children he coached to send him nude photos and videos over Snapchat.
• June 2023: Kareem and Sharice Mitchell were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison for running a sex trafficking operation involving at least eight young women, two of whom were placed in their care as certified New York State foster parents.
• June 2023: We announced the indictment of a man for targeting a 14-year-old girl on Instagram, repeatedly giving her drugs, and raping her in hotel rooms in Queens and Manhattan. The investigation, which has revealed similar contact with numerous other children, is ongoing.
• May 2023: Gregory Smith was sentenced to 24 years in prison for raping two teenage girls in Harlem and then attempting to bribe them for their silence. “I thank these young survivors for bravely reporting this despicable behavior, which aided our prosecutors in their fight for accountability,” said D.A. Bragg.
• March 2023: We indicted Jamel McIver on multiple charges including Rape in the First Degree for following a stranger into her Upper West Side apartment building and raping her. “The horrific conduct charged in the indictment is beyond disturbing. New Yorkers should not have to fear for their safety when they walk into their apartment buildings,” said D.A. Bragg.
• June 2022: We indicted two men for violently trafficking multiple women in their mid-twenties, forcing them to engage in commercial sexual acts in at least six states. The men allegedly coerced the survivors by beating them, brandishing a firearm, withholding their personal identifying documents, and forcing them to take cocaine – all while disguising the financial proceeds by creating a Connecticut-based LLC. 
• July 2022: The Office secured the trial conviction of a neurologist for sexually assaulting and raping six patients under his care at the Beth Israel Medical Center. The neurologist not only sexually assaulted his patients but overprescribed serious pain medication to women with chronic and debilitating pain disorders in order to exert control over them.
• October 2022: We indicted a man for attacking and sexually assaulting three women as they jogged along the Hudson River Greenway in Upper Manhattan in September 2022. As alleged, he preyed on women using the same pattern: attacking them in broad daylight as they were out for a run. 

In May 2023, we filed a memorandum of support for Senator Zellnor Myrie’s legislation that will work to expand eligibility for victims and survivors of crime to access victim compensation funds by removing the mandatory law enforcement reporting requirement and providing alternative forms of evidence that would show that a qualifying crime was committed. This compensation plays an important role in victims’ healing journey and in fostering safety in communities impacted by crime.

In June 2024, along with NOW-NYC’s President Sonia Ossorio’s D.A. Bragg called on the legislature to close the voluntary intoxication loophole that creates an unjustly high bar for prosecuting perpetrators of rape and sexual assault. “If we are serious about protecting New Yorkers from sexual assault, we must update our laws to fit the reality of the crimes that are occurring.”