LOWER EAST SIDE — Police have arrested a homeless man they say attempted to rape a woman after following her into her apartment building several weeks ago.
Robert Adames, 41, was cuffed Saturday in the East Village in connection to the crime and has been charged with burglary as a sexually motivated felony, attempted rape and sex abuse, according to prosecutors.
Adames trailed the victim into her apartment building near Norfolk and Rivington streets shortly after midnight the morning of March 3, shoved her against her apartment door and groped her, police and prosecutors said.
He attempted to remove her clothes, but the victim resisted and he fled, according to authorities.
Adames — initially identified as "Adams" — had been identified as a suspect days after the incident.
He has been arrested 40 times since 1998, mostly on robbery and drug charges, police said. He is currently on parole until 2020 for a 2012 perjury conviction, according to authorities.
Adames is being held in the Manhattan Detention Complex on $200,000 bail, Department of Correction records show, and is due back in court March 31. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.