September 5, 2003

Man Charged With Raping Girl He Met on Internet

HITE PLAINS, Sept. 4 — An Ossining mother came home from work one day last month to discover that her kitchen screen had been cut and pots overturned. Nothing had been stolen, but another detail — a teddy bear had been rearranged in her 13-year-old daughter's bedroom while the girl was out of town — seemed even more peculiar.

The mother's suspicions led to the arraignment today on charges of rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old Long Island man who the authorities said had formed an online relationship with the girl.

The case was the latest in a string of Internet sex crimes that the Westchester district attorney, Jeanine F. Pirro, has pursued in recent years, leading to the convictions of a former school board member, a Yonkers official and many others.

"This is another example of how pedophiles are using the Internet to make contact with our children," Ms. Pirro said in a news conference. They are not merely exchanging "indecent materials with them and arranging to meet them," she said, "but they are actually raping and sodomizing these kids."

The man, Ricardo Brice, communicated with the girl over four months via an America Online chat room, officials said. Then, at the end of July, the authorities say, Mr. Brice, whose screen name incorporates the words "pimps" and "thugs," went to the girl's house, where they had sexual relations — considered rape and sodomy under the law because of their ages.

On Aug. 18, Mr. Brice returned to the home, Ms. Pirro said, but this time the girl was staying at her father's home for the week in another Westchester town. The teddy bear was moved from its usual perch to the windowsill, and the closet appeared to have been rifled through, Ms. Pirro said.

"He came back with, we believe, the intentions of rendezvousing with the 13-year-old again," she said.

Investigators from the district attorney's high-tech crimes unit assumed the identity of the 13-year-old online and established computer contact with Mr. Brice.

"We were able to identify who the defendant was and where he lived," Ms. Pirro said. "It was a combination of a child giving us information as well as putting together a forensic paper trail through the computer."

After searching Mr. Brice's home in Central Islip on Wednesday, detectives took him into custody. This morning, he was arraigned in the Ossining village court and charged with rape in the second degree, sodomy in the second degree and burglary in the third degree, felonies carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. He is being held without bail at the Westchester County Jail. Ms. Pirro's office said Mr. Brice would likely be represented by Legal Aid, but said it did not have the name of a specific lawyer.

"I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that she is 13 years old," Ms. Pirro said. "And here's the bottom line: She was 13. It's rape. It's sodomy. End of story."