Suspect in Stuy Town Teen Rape Faces 17 Count Indictment

The homeless man who was arrested for the vicious rape of a 14 year-old girl in Stuyvesant Town is now facing a 17 count felony indicement for the attack on Jan. 29.

”This brutal, broad daylight attack horrified this community and the entire borough,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “As alleged Germaine Paham raped a young girl who was just trying to return home. My thoughts are with her as she recovers from this heinous violent act.”

In the brutal assault, he was charged with dragging the victim at knifepoint into a stairwell off the mezzanine level of the building, ordered her to remove her pants and bashed her head into a railing.

According to a charge document, his penis twice came into contact with the girl’s vagina, he inserted his penis into her mouth and sodomized her.

The ten-minute assault was only interrupted when another resident of the building entered the stairway. Parham then was charged with stealing the victim’s cell phone before fleeing the building. He was at large for two days before police were able to match the suspect to a mug shot of Parham and distributed it via its Crime Stoppers X account.

And it appears a second woman only narrowly avoided becoming the victim. The assailant had first followed another woman into an elevator at 276 First Ave. but got off after riding only one floor because he encountered another person in the elevator.

The attorney for Parham, Mariah Martinez could not be reached at press time.

Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village is a 110 building complex containing about 11,200 apartments owned by Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge and managed by Beam Living.

It is generally considered among the safest neighborhoods in Manhattan. The non-doorman building has key card access. The alleged assailant was said to have piggybacked into the building after the teen opened the door.

Management was faulted for its slow response in getting the word out to customers and for never revealing that a rape had been committed.

Its initial response released some two hours after the attack only went out to residents of the building where the attack took place, on the First Ave Loop Rd, off of First Ave. and 18th St. “M Level is currently closed due to police activity in your building,” said the text alert. It advised the residents in the building to use T level until further notice, but there was no mention of the vicious attack.

It would be two days before management acknowledged that a “serious crime” had taken place, but there was still no disclosure that it was a rape and that the alleged assailant was still at large.

The assailant had first followed another woman into an elevator at 276 First Ave. but got off after riding only one floor because he encountered another person in the elevator.

He then crossed the pathway to the building where the assault took place.

The community of over 30,000 people sites on the East Side of Manhattan from E. 14th to E. 23rd St. and from First Ave. to Ave. C. The non-doorman complex has a key card access system. It is generally ranked as one of the safest neighborhoods in Manhattan with its own private security service.

A zoom meeting with residents headed by Beam Living CEO Yulia Yutsis included the complex’s chief of public safety Francis Martin and the commanding officer of the 13th Pct. Alexander Brathwaite on Feb. 12.

Management required callers to submit questions in writing in advance. In recent days, it has stationed security guards at the entranceways to the Loop Roads leading into the complex, but many residents continue to have security concerns.

Susan Steinberg, president of the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association said the association was not allowed to address the zoom meeting. “We submitted a lot of questions. Many of them went unanswered,” she said.

The ST/PCV Tenants Association is calling its own town hall meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Septodont Auditorium in the NYU School of Dentistry, 345 E. 24th St., first floor. Local elected officials including newly elected Assembly member Keith Powers and NYS Senator Kirsti Gonzalez have said they will attend and invites have been extended to Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal and City Council member Virginia Maloney.

An email blast from the association read: “Following the recent violent assault on the property, current security procedures must be reevaluated and improved. Many of us submitted questions and comments to Beam Living for their webinar, but maybe yours wasn’t answered or not to your satisfaction.”

“The 13th Precinct Community Council meeting provided a few details but no commitment from the NYPD to review or change their protocol and how they interact with Public Safety.”

Powers told Our Town, “The recent attack on a resident in Stuyvesant Town was a horrifying incident that requires community leaders at all levels to redouble our efforts to keep this community safe.

“I have met with management to discuss the concerns of the residents and ways to improve public safety,” Powers continued. “In the coming weeks we’re going to make sure that we can get answers to critical questions and address resident concerns.”

The suspect, Parham, remains remanded to Rikers Island without bail and is due back in court on May 21, according to the DAs office. His attorney with the New York County Defenders Services, Mariah Martinez, could not be reached at press time.