CIVIC CENTER — The boy who police charged with the rape of an 8-year-old girl in a Harlem public library bathroom admitted to the attack, the arresting officer testifed Tuesday.
Officer Hazel Wike-Gray told a Manhattan Family Court judge that the 13-year-old foster care boy, who social workers said was a chronic runaway, confessed to coaxing the girl into the bathroom in the Countee Cullen restroom on Sept. 4 and repeatedly raping her. The victim is the sister his friend, the officer said.
The boy gave conflicting accounts of the attack, telling the officer that he thought she was 12 years old, but also admitting to thinking she was 7, the officer testified.
A worker for the Administration for Children's Services was present for the interview, according to the court testimony of the officer and others.
Defense lawyer Lydia Ross asked the judge to release the boy from juvenile detention because he was being bullied at the group home where he is being held.
But Judge Mary Bednar ruled against the attorney, because of the boy's history of fleeing foster care.
Cecilia Williams, a lawyer for the city, told the court that the defendant's father had recently moving to Virginia.
The youth, whose name is being withheld because of his age, will return to court on Sept. 20 for trial.
