MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A serial sexual attacker recently convicted of assaulting a woman in her East Village apartment in 2008 told a judge Monday the American justice was biased against him because he's a poor Native American.
In a bizarre rant, Greg Poirier, 39, a Native American from British Columbia, told Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Mullen that America's legal system is set up against poor people and that he "happens to be a poor Indian," before he was sentenced to 25 years for the assault.
In July, a jury found Poirier guilty of first degree sexually motivated burglary and first degree sexual abuse for forcing the victim into her apartment and sexually assualting her—while he covered her mouth with his hand "in an effort to stop her from screaming from help," said assistant district attorney Siobhan Carty.
"You can give me 25 years to life, you can give me anything you want," said Poirier, who also has a warrant for arrest in Canada, according to prosecutors. "But at least I'm going to try to fight this — that's all I can do. Other than that, do what you want because 'In God we Trust,' that's your God. I have a God too, it's an Indian God."
Poirier added that he's trying trying to get ahold of his "political leaders up in Canada" to intervene.
The victim, who sat solemly in the courtroom, declined to speak at the sentencing, but had her statement read by prosecutors.
"Four years ago my feeling of security was taken from me and this many years later I've still never felt safe," the victim wrote. "I am grateful I escaped any worse outcome that night, but my life is forever changed."
Prosecutors said the brave young woman fought back during the attack — biting Poirier's wrist and drawing blood, which authorites entered into the state DNA database.
At first there was no DNA match, but that changed in 2009, when Poirier was arrested for a string of similar sexual assaults against four women—he cornered one woman in an elevator and attacked another in her apartment in the span of just two hours, Carty said.
After the arrest, authorities were finally able to identify the DNA they had recovered from the blood left behind in the 2008 attack.
Poirier, currently in jail for the 2009 attacks, maintains his innocence. During the trial, he argued that he'd been in a fight with a man in the Bronx — then that man, with Poirier's blood on him, later attacked the East Village woman. The jury didn't agree with his far-flung explanation.
But Judge Mullen said she did agree with one piece of his strange statement, before hitting him with the maximum sentence.
"Okay, Mr. Poirier, you're right about one thing," she said. "This is America, people like you should not walk the street after what you did."
