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Man Arrested in Sex Attack on 85-Year-Old Woman

By Adam Nichols | June 2, 2011 8:21am | Updated on June 2, 2011 3:00pm

By Adam Nichols and Shayna Jacobs

DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN — A tattoo artist and admitted child sex offender has been charged in connection with a sickening sex attack on an 85-year-old woman on the Upper East Side.

Jeffrey Ritter, 32, of Brooklyn, was arrested Wednesday night and was awaiting arraignment Thursday, police said.

He was charged with sexual abuse, robbery and comitting a criminal sex act.

Ritter allegedly put the woman into a headlock and dragged her into a stairwell and sexually assaulted her on East 83rd Street at Madison Avenue at 5:40 a.m. Monday.

Ritter, who has a New York Yankees tattoo on his face and the words Tahtianna and Shik tattooed above each eye, was led into Central Booking Thursday morning. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he's a "self-employed ... tattoo artist," which he said "explains the tattoos on his arms. he also has a very significant tattoo on his face."

Ritter snarled at reporters as he was walked into Central Booking in Manhattan, asking, "You wanna take a picture or something?" Earlier, he had shouted at reporters as he left the Special Victims Unit in Harlem and said, "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!" according to reports.

Ritter has 11 prior arrests, including one for sexually abusing a child in Nebraska, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters.

Kelly said Ritter did not register as a sex offender, as required by law, when he moved to New York. Officials initially arrested him on that charge, but once in custody, Ritter confessed to attacking the elderly woman, Kelly said. He was caught after a neighbor called 911 early Tuesday morning to say he matched the description of the man in the videos released by police, Kelly said.

Police said Ritter had also tried to duck sex offender registry requirements when he lived in Arkansas.

Kelly added that Ritter will be put in a lineup to see whether he was the same suspect accused of attacking a 25-year-old Upper East Side woman a week before the attack on the elderly woman.

His arrest gave some relief to Upper East Side residents who have been jittery since the attack.

"That's great news, it was a despicable crime," said Jame Lyness, who is the principal of a neighborhood school.

"My students are all aware of what happened."