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| Felon's DNA Evidence Leads to His Arrest in 1999 Rape |
| By New York Times |
| Published: 05/28/2001 |
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New York State's expanded collection of DNA evidence from felons was credited last week with helping to catch a career criminal in the brazen rape of a television producer in Midtown Manhattan two years ago. Investigators said the break in the case came when a state laboratory matched the DNA previously found in semen on the victim's clothing to DNA from a blood sample provided last year by the suspect. The producer, then 25, was attacked in the early hours of Dec. 21, 1999, by a man who forced her down a stairwell on a busy stretch of the Avenue of the Americas, near 53rd Street. The rapist then tried to force her to withdraw money from a nearby automated teller machine before fleeing with her watch and umbrella. The suspect, Lashange LeGrand, 34, is a convicted robber who was released from prison three years ago, the authorities said. They said that he was forced to submit a DNA sample last year under a new state law that requires certain felons, particularly violent ones, to submit DNA samples even after their release. State analysts have spent months analyzing samples provided under the law, and on Saturday they notified the New York City police of the match. LeGrand was arrested at his home in Yonkers without incident, and was later identified by the victim in a lineup, the police said. A Pataki administration spokeswoman, said that since the law took effect in December 1999, the state has collected 82,000 samples from convicted offenders and registered 53 matches for previously unsolved crimes. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. Hamilton Lindley His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.