PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2007

Contact: William J. Smith (718) 556-7150
William.Smith@rcda.nyc.gov

D.A. Donovan: Defendant Arrested Through DNA Technology Pleads Guilty in 1999 Rape
***Lee Calvin, 36, Enters Plea to Charge of 3rd Degree Rape, 1st Degree Unlawful Imprisonment in Rape of 15 year old girl, Faces ***

STATEN ISLAND, NY - Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. today announced that a guilty plea has been entered by Lee Calvin (DOB: 6/21/1969), of St. Mark’s Place, St. George, for the 1999 rape of a 15 year-old Staten Island girl. The defendant, who pleaded guilty to charges of Rape in the 3rd Degree and 1st Degree Unlawful Imprisonment, will be sentenced to a period of 4 to 8 years in prison at his April 12, 2007 sentencing date before Justice Stephen J. Rooney.

At approximately 2:00 AM on April 29, 1999, the 15 year old victim was forced, after being punched and dragged, as well as under the threat of violence, from a sidewalk in the vicinity of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard, to a boardinghouse at 122 Central Avenue. While in the boardinghouse the defendant forcibly removed the girl’s clothing and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse.

“Until the morning he was arrested, Lee Calvin thought he was free and clear for a brutal rape committed 6 years earlier,” stated District Attorney Donovan in announcing the plea. “Dedicated prosecutors and investigators, along with a courageous victim, ensured that our justice system never forgot this crime and that Lee Calvin be appropriately punished.”

The defendant was linked to the crime by a match of DNA taken from the victim’s rape kit and matched to a sample of the defendant’s DNA on file in New York State’s DNA database. Calvin was placed under arrest October 13, 2005 in St. George by members of the NYPD’s warrant squad under a bench warrant issued in September 2005 for failure to pay a $370 fine on a marijuana possession conviction. He was transported to the office of the Richmond County District Attorney where he was arrested by Detective Investigators from District Attorney Donovan’s office on charges related to the 1999 rape.

Calvin is the third individual to be charged with rape via DNA evidence in Staten Island under District Attorney Donovan’s administration. In September 2004, Joseph Pellegrino was arrested for a 1994 rape in the Clifton section of the borough, and in April 2005, Victor Cruz was arrested for a 1995 rape in Graniteville. Both defendants had their DNA indicted as part of the City of New York’s “John Doe Indictment Project” and were later matched to samples in the state’s database.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Wanda DeOliveira, Deputy Chief of the Sex Crimes/Special Victims Bureau, working under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Yolanda L. Rudich, Bureau Chief. The investigation was conducted by the District Attorney’s Detective Investigators Gary Mercer and Margaret Eng- Wallace. The defendant is represented by Mark Fonte, Esq.

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