The NYPD nabbed the final suspect in an increasingly complicated Brooklyn gang rape Tuesday as details about the heinous crime remained elusive and the specter of the Central Park Five case was raised by a defense lawyer.
Travis Beckford, 17, was busted after he arrived at Tilden High School for his morning classes, police said.
The Brooklynite was the fifth teenage suspect grabbed by police since the shocking Thursday night attack inside the Osborn Playground in Brownsville.
18-YEAR-OLD WOMAN GANG RAPED AT BROOKLYN PLAYGROUND
The disturbing and progressively complex scenario, involving young suspects, the victim’s allegedly incestuous relationship with her father, a missing weapon and a disturbing snippet of video, was compared to another infamous case involving a quintet of suspects.
“What are we really doing here?” asked 14-year-old Denzel Murray’s lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, before invoking the notorious 1989 case of five teens wrongly accused of rape. “Have we not learned our lessons from the Central Park Five?”
TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Denzel Murray, front, Ethan Philip and Shaquell Cooper, three of five suspects in the rape of an 18-year-old woman on Saturday, were led into Central Booking on Schermerhorn Street in Brookyn on Tuesday.
The suspects in the Brooklyn case were all charged as adults with rape, sex abuse and committing a criminal sex act. All except Beckford appeared at a tense arraignment Tuesday night.
A brother of one suspect came forward earlier in the day with an unverified 10-second video, shot with a cell phone, showing a smiling girl who’s naked from the waist down — supposedly the victim — sitting with a young man.
“You saying yeah?” says a voice off-camera. “It’s lit” — meaning the youths had the go-ahead for sexual relations with the 18-year-old woman, according to Billy Anderson, brother of suspect Ethan Phillip.
A cell phone was recovered, and the NYPD was seeking a search warrant to scour its contents, a police source said. One teen told cops he shot video of the victim and sent it to a relative, the source said.
Anderson said he was told the teens spied the victim and her father having sex on a tennis court when they arrived at the park, and they challenged the dad’s claim of getting chased away with a gun.
Police released surveillance footage of the suspects entering a nearby deli before the alleged gang rape occurred. The cops have now arrested all five of the teenage suspects.
“No man in his right mind would leave their daughter like that,” Anderson told the Daily News.
TEENS CHARGED IN PLAYGROUND RAPE SAY SEX WAS CONSENSUAL
Police indicated the stories told by both father and daughter — who were drinking in the park — were credible and consistent. Two of the suspects, contradicting the woman’s tale, claimed the sex was consensual, a law enforcement source told The News.
“It’s complicated,” the source said.
A source said the alleged victim — who was clearly injured and traumatized after the attack, according to police — was in foster care and living out of state until last summer. The man who was with the woman is her biological dad, who lost custody when she was just 3 years old, a source said. The accuser’s mother is not in her life, the source said.
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Rape suspect Travis Beckford was arrested Tuesday.
Incest is a felony.
Police said the claim that the accuser was having sex with her father came from only two of the suspects. It’s under investigation by police; the dad hasn’t been charged or asked for a DNA sample.
“The case is getting weaker by the day,” said Spencer Leeds, another lawyer representing one of the teens, after it was revealed the victim and her father were unable to identify any of the teens in a lineup.
"This case is on its way to disappearing. There's a belief in the neighborhood in the Brownsville community that the complaining witness and the father have had sexual intercourse," Leeds added.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said police planned to inform community leaders the day after last Thursday’s incident. Instead, the NYPD dropped the ball, with Mayor de Blasio saying he never heard a word about the attack until Sunday around noon.
“There’s no denying that the department should have put some information out on Friday,” Bratton acknowledged.
Beckford joined his four co-defendants in police custody as his Tilden classmates were left reeling. The teen has a prior arrest for marijuana possession, cops said.
"The NYPD has a videotape of these young men in a store, that's all," Montgomery said.
Police had earlier collared Onandi Brown, 17, along with 15-year-olds Shaquell Cooper and Phillip and Murray in the assault.
Cooper was arrested three months ago for smashing a robbery victim in the head with a baseball bat in a Brooklyn subway station, according to court papers. His lawyer said the ninth-grader is about to be a father.
THEODORE PARISIENNE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
One of five suspects in rape on a Brooklyn playground is escorted into Brooklyn's Special Victim's Unit office on Tuesday.
Enlarge
MARCUS SANTOS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Denzel Murray, front, Ethan Philip and Shaquell Cooper are three of the teens facing arraignment for allegedly raping an 18-year-old in Brooklyn.
Enlarge
Brown was held on $25,000 bail, Cooper on $50,000 bail and Phillip and Murray on $10,000 bail each.
On Thursday night, the park’s two wrought iron fences and one chain link fence were open.
“The playground is not locked every night,” said Parks Dept. spokesman Sam Biederman. “Playgrounds are not typically locked.”
Park advocates contend that has never been the case.
“It is a bold face lie to say that playgrounds are not typically locked at night,” fumed Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates. “They are desperately trying to avoid liability. This is reprehensible.”
The union representing Park Enforcement Patrol officers also slammed the department.
“Why isn’t the Parks Department locking its playgrounds at night?” asked Joe Puleo, president of DC 37 Local 983. “When did they implement this supposed new policy change or is it just limited to playgrounds in certain areas of Brooklyn?”
Travis Beckford, 17, was busted after he arrived at Tilden High School for his morning classes, police said.
The Brooklynite was the fifth teenage suspect grabbed by police since the shocking Thursday night attack inside the Osborn Playground in Brownsville.
18-YEAR-OLD WOMAN GANG RAPED AT BROOKLYN PLAYGROUND
The disturbing and progressively complex scenario, involving young suspects, the victim’s allegedly incestuous relationship with her father, a missing weapon and a disturbing snippet of video, was compared to another infamous case involving a quintet of suspects.
“What are we really doing here?” asked 14-year-old Denzel Murray’s lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, before invoking the notorious 1989 case of five teens wrongly accused of rape. “Have we not learned our lessons from the Central Park Five?”
Denzel Murray, front, Ethan Philip and Shaquell Cooper, three of five suspects in the rape of an 18-year-old woman on Saturday, were led into Central Booking on Schermerhorn Street in Brookyn on Tuesday.
The suspects in the Brooklyn case were all charged as adults with rape, sex abuse and committing a criminal sex act. All except Beckford appeared at a tense arraignment Tuesday night.
A brother of one suspect came forward earlier in the day with an unverified 10-second video, shot with a cell phone, showing a smiling girl who’s naked from the waist down — supposedly the victim — sitting with a young man.
“You saying yeah?” says a voice off-camera. “It’s lit” — meaning the youths had the go-ahead for sexual relations with the 18-year-old woman, according to Billy Anderson, brother of suspect Ethan Phillip.
A cell phone was recovered, and the NYPD was seeking a search warrant to scour its contents, a police source said. One teen told cops he shot video of the victim and sent it to a relative, the source said.
Anderson said he was told the teens spied the victim and her father having sex on a tennis court when they arrived at the park, and they challenged the dad’s claim of getting chased away with a gun.
Police released surveillance footage of the suspects entering a nearby deli before the alleged gang rape occurred. The cops have now arrested all five of the teenage suspects.
“No man in his right mind would leave their daughter like that,” Anderson told the Daily News.
TEENS CHARGED IN PLAYGROUND RAPE SAY SEX WAS CONSENSUAL
Police indicated the stories told by both father and daughter — who were drinking in the park — were credible and consistent. Two of the suspects, contradicting the woman’s tale, claimed the sex was consensual, a law enforcement source told The News.
“It’s complicated,” the source said.
A source said the alleged victim — who was clearly injured and traumatized after the attack, according to police — was in foster care and living out of state until last summer. The man who was with the woman is her biological dad, who lost custody when she was just 3 years old, a source said. The accuser’s mother is not in her life, the source said.
Rape suspect Travis Beckford was arrested Tuesday.
Incest is a felony.
Police said the claim that the accuser was having sex with her father came from only two of the suspects. It’s under investigation by police; the dad hasn’t been charged or asked for a DNA sample.
“The case is getting weaker by the day,” said Spencer Leeds, another lawyer representing one of the teens, after it was revealed the victim and her father were unable to identify any of the teens in a lineup.
"This case is on its way to disappearing. There's a belief in the neighborhood in the Brownsville community that the complaining witness and the father have had sexual intercourse," Leeds added.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said police planned to inform community leaders the day after last Thursday’s incident. Instead, the NYPD dropped the ball, with Mayor de Blasio saying he never heard a word about the attack until Sunday around noon.
“There’s no denying that the department should have put some information out on Friday,” Bratton acknowledged.
Beckford joined his four co-defendants in police custody as his Tilden classmates were left reeling. The teen has a prior arrest for marijuana possession, cops said.
"The NYPD has a videotape of these young men in a store, that's all," Montgomery said.
Police had earlier collared Onandi Brown, 17, along with 15-year-olds Shaquell Cooper and Phillip and Murray in the assault.
Cooper was arrested three months ago for smashing a robbery victim in the head with a baseball bat in a Brooklyn subway station, according to court papers. His lawyer said the ninth-grader is about to be a father.
One of five suspects in rape on a Brooklyn playground is escorted into Brooklyn's Special Victim's Unit office on Tuesday.
Enlarge
Denzel Murray, front, Ethan Philip and Shaquell Cooper are three of the teens facing arraignment for allegedly raping an 18-year-old in Brooklyn.
Enlarge
Brown was held on $25,000 bail, Cooper on $50,000 bail and Phillip and Murray on $10,000 bail each.
On Thursday night, the park’s two wrought iron fences and one chain link fence were open.
“The playground is not locked every night,” said Parks Dept. spokesman Sam Biederman. “Playgrounds are not typically locked.”
Park advocates contend that has never been the case.
“It is a bold face lie to say that playgrounds are not typically locked at night,” fumed Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates. “They are desperately trying to avoid liability. This is reprehensible.”
The union representing Park Enforcement Patrol officers also slammed the department.
“Why isn’t the Parks Department locking its playgrounds at night?” asked Joe Puleo, president of DC 37 Local 983. “When did they implement this supposed new policy change or is it just limited to playgrounds in certain areas of Brooklyn?”
