SCHENECTADY Suspect sought in reported sexual assault downtown Police check video cameras for clues BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
City police Tuesday were reviewing surveillance camera recordings Tuesday, looking for clues in a reported downtown sexual assault, authorities said. Police received a call around 12:15 p.m. from a woman reporting an assault in the parking garage off Chapel Street, police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said. The woman told police she was approached by a man, they exchanged words and she was attacked, Kilcullen said. He described the attack as a sexual assault. The man was described as white, in his 30s, wearing a tan jacket and green hat. He was last seen on foot going west on State Street from Lafayette Street. Police were reviewing surveillance cameras in the downtown area, looking for the suspect, Kilcullen said. The incident happened at a parking garage connected to the Wade Lupe apartments on Franklin Street. The garage has limited public access, Kilcullen said. The report sent officers and detectives to the scene and around downtown. Evidence technicians could be seen on Chapel Street early Tuesday afternoon. At one point, police cars converged just west of Broadway and State Street for a man who may have matched the description, but that sighting was apparently unfounded. Kilcullen noted police were still early in the investigation, but he said they don’t believe the attack was the work of any kind of serial rapist. He repeated general suggestions to make sure, when entering secluded areas, to be accompanied by someone, day or night. The parking garage site is near the MVP building, though not one affiliated with the company. MVP spokesman Gary Hughes said police were in touch with the company about the incident. Police advised them they would have increased presence in the area. Officials, in turn, relayed that information to employees via e-mail. MVP security was also expected to pay extra attention to their own garage. The company also reminded employees that anyone wanting an escort to their car could get one, a service Hughes said is offered whenever requested. Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net
Recent parolee charged in downtown Schenectady sex assault April 3, 2008 By Steven Cook (Contact) Gazette Reporter
Brian Sullivan, arrested as suspect in Schenectady rape. SCHENECTADY — City police have charged a recent parolee in the sexual assault of a woman last month in a downtown parking garage.
Police arrested Brian Lee Sullivan, 23, on a parole violation on March 25 and held him on that charge in the Schenectady County jail until they got confirmation of a match of DNA from the March 11 attack with the state's DNA database and charged him with first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree unlawful inprisonment, all felonies.
Sullivan was arraigned this morning in City Court and returned to jail without bail because of the parole violation.
Police received a call around 12:15 p.m. on March 11 from a woman reporting that she had been sexually assaulted in the parking garage off Chapel Street. The woman told police she was approached by a man, they exchanged words and she was attacked.
The incident happened in a parking garage connected to the Wade Lupe apartments on Franklin Street. The garage has limited public access.
According to the state Department of Correctional Services inmate database, Sullivan was released on parole Jan. 11 after serving less than a year in prison for a second-degree attempted robbery conviction in a similar attack in downtown Schenectady in May 2006 that was thwarted when the victim knocked his glasses off. The suspect in the recent attack was also described as wearing brown-framed oval-shaped eyeglasses.
In the 2006 attack, Sullivan was accused of attacking a woman as she walked to her car after work. The woman told police she opened her car door and noticed a flier on the windshield. She got it, turned around and the man was standing there.
He shoved her into the car and hit her in the face, but she began screaming and fighting, knocking his glasses off. The man then said he couldn’t see without them and fled with the woman’s briefcase. He also tried to take the car, but couldn’t when the woman knocked the keys to the floor.
Sullivan was required to submit a DNA sample to the state database after his conviction. All felons are required to submit samples, as well as those convicted of certain misdemeanors.
Sullivan’s arrest is the second in Schenectady County in a rape case in recent weeks. Authorities last month charged notorious Albany rapist Darius Ashley with an April 2005 knifepoint rape of a college student on Hulett Street.
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