MANHATTAN — The Harlem boy charged with the rape of an 8-year-old girl in a public library bathroom will be tried as a juvenile, a Family Court judge ruled Friday.
The 13-year-old, who allegedly attacked the girl in the unisex bathroom of the Countee Cullen public library on Sept. 5, is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday on delinquency charges stemming from the sexual assault, Judge Susan Larabee said in an afternoon hearing.
He will be kept in the care of the city Administration for Children's Services until his case begins, the judge decided. The boy had been in the care of ACS prior to the attack and was considered a runaway at the time, his lawyer and a lawyer for the city said.
He has never been arrested before, Lydia Ross, his public defender said.
The attack happened about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, when the boy lured the girl away from her brother and her babysitter and led into the bathroom, where he raped her, police said.
Cops say that the boy and the girl recognized each other from previous visits to the W. 136th Street branch of the library.
The girl did not report the attack until she got home and told her mother, according to cops.
Investigators, working closely with library security, identified the boy from surveillance tape and arrested him Thursday after guards at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a public library around the corner from Countee Cullen library, recognized the boy coming into the building and alerted cops, sources said.
The boy, who was wearing a royal blue T-shit, grey canvas pants and black sneakers in his court appearance, yawned at the hearing Friday and smiled at the judge and a ACS worker who sat in the audience.
He was led out in handcuffs after the hearing.
