Police: LI teens abused bowling alley worker with plumbing snake
By FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press Writer
October 19, 2006, 3:56 PM EDT
YAPHANK, N.Y. -- A developmentally disabled handyman was hospitalized in stable condition _ but in a great deal of pain _ after two teenagers brutally sexually assaulted him with a plumbing snake at the bowling alley where he worked, police said Thursday.
One of the attackers, who had been bullying the victim for several years, twisted the snake so far into his rectum that it had to be removed during a surgical procedure that took several hours, police said.
"This was a cruel and sadistic crime with no other purpose but to torture another human being," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said at a press conference.
The two youths, Steven Rodriguez, 19, and Michael Lunsford, 17, both of Shirley, were arrested this week and charged with aggravated sexual abuse, a felony that carries a prison term of up to 25 years upon conviction.
Rodriguez was arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday and held on $200,000 bond after pleading not guilty. Police said he was represented by Legal Aid, but a woman answering the telephone at the Suffolk County Legal Aid office said she did not know which lawyer was assigned to the case.
Lunsford pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday afternoon and was ordered held on $500,000 bond. There was no answer at his attorney's office.
The 21-year-old worker at AMF Bowling Centers' Shirley Lanes was accosted in the bathroom of the bowling alley, Dormer said. He was held down by one of the youths and sodomized with the plumbing tool by the other in the Sunday night attack, Dormer said.
The youths forced the plumbing snake, which is used to unclog drains, into the worker's rectum and spun it several times, causing him severe pain, internal injury and bleeding.
"They forced him to bend over, and Lunsford held him down while Rodriguez assaulted him," Dormer said, adding that the tool was found in a storage closet in the bathroom.
A woman answering the telephone at the bowling alley Thursday said: "We are concerned about (the victim) and his family right now. That's all I can say."
Police said the victim and Rodriguez had known each other for at least five years, having met when they were at the Sagamore Children's Psychiatric Center in Dix Hills.
Rodriguez "had a personal animosity toward the victim" and had bullied him during that time, Dormer said; police suggested that Rodriguez may have been upset that the victim had told others that he had spent time in a psychiatric center.
Rodriguez has three arrests on his record for violent acts, including twice on Aug. 7, 2006. He was charged initially with throwing a vacuum cleaner at his mother and then later in the day with threatening someone with a 3-foot pipe.
On May 2, 2006, he was arrested after he was accused of making a bomb threat at a supermarket.
By FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press Writer
October 19, 2006, 3:56 PM EDT
YAPHANK, N.Y. -- A developmentally disabled handyman was hospitalized in stable condition _ but in a great deal of pain _ after two teenagers brutally sexually assaulted him with a plumbing snake at the bowling alley where he worked, police said Thursday.
One of the attackers, who had been bullying the victim for several years, twisted the snake so far into his rectum that it had to be removed during a surgical procedure that took several hours, police said.
"This was a cruel and sadistic crime with no other purpose but to torture another human being," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said at a press conference.
The two youths, Steven Rodriguez, 19, and Michael Lunsford, 17, both of Shirley, were arrested this week and charged with aggravated sexual abuse, a felony that carries a prison term of up to 25 years upon conviction.
Rodriguez was arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday and held on $200,000 bond after pleading not guilty. Police said he was represented by Legal Aid, but a woman answering the telephone at the Suffolk County Legal Aid office said she did not know which lawyer was assigned to the case.
Lunsford pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday afternoon and was ordered held on $500,000 bond. There was no answer at his attorney's office.
The 21-year-old worker at AMF Bowling Centers' Shirley Lanes was accosted in the bathroom of the bowling alley, Dormer said. He was held down by one of the youths and sodomized with the plumbing tool by the other in the Sunday night attack, Dormer said.
The youths forced the plumbing snake, which is used to unclog drains, into the worker's rectum and spun it several times, causing him severe pain, internal injury and bleeding.
"They forced him to bend over, and Lunsford held him down while Rodriguez assaulted him," Dormer said, adding that the tool was found in a storage closet in the bathroom.
A woman answering the telephone at the bowling alley Thursday said: "We are concerned about (the victim) and his family right now. That's all I can say."
Police said the victim and Rodriguez had known each other for at least five years, having met when they were at the Sagamore Children's Psychiatric Center in Dix Hills.
Rodriguez "had a personal animosity toward the victim" and had bullied him during that time, Dormer said; police suggested that Rodriguez may have been upset that the victim had told others that he had spent time in a psychiatric center.
Rodriguez has three arrests on his record for violent acts, including twice on Aug. 7, 2006. He was charged initially with throwing a vacuum cleaner at his mother and then later in the day with threatening someone with a 3-foot pipe.
On May 2, 2006, he was arrested after he was accused of making a bomb threat at a supermarket.
