Former Rikers CO Ricardo Walters Gets 203 Years in Prison

Ricard Walters (YouTube)

While I was caught up in the election and digesting the post-election results and Cabinet appointments, I missed a significant update on one of the stories that I have covered on this blog in the past. Some of you may remember Ricardo Walters, the former Rikers CO who was accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint at a bus stop with his service firearm. It then came out that Walters was implicated in numerous kidnappings and rapes in and around his hometown of Hempstead, New York. All of this occurred after he killed someone trying to break into his car (which, for the record, was justified.)

When Walters was charged with the kidnappings and rapes (six counts of kidnapping, five counts of robbery, and four counts of sex abuse, among other charges to be exact), I had a feeling that the prosecution was going to win their case. It seems harder to convict those in law enforcement and on top of that Walters faced serious charges (which are often pleaded down.) But with DNA evidence and a confident investigator (one detective said, "The bottom line is: this guy, he's a predator") a conviction seemed to be the next step. And it was.

Two days ago Walters was sentenced to 203 years after being convicted of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act, four counts of first-degree sexual abuse, kidnapping and second-degree attempted kidnapping. The judge minced no words during the sentencing, castigating the former corrections officer for invoking the Lord's name in the rapist's statement: "When I hear you invoke a higher power, I'm disgusted," McCormack said. "What higher power was [your victim] going to turn to when you had her in the back of that alley, raping and sodomizing her?"

Walters will now be in prison for the rest of his life and hopefully the women he victimized have found peace since the gruesome attacks. Kudos to the women who had to relive their experiences on the stand to make sure that their attacker sees justice. Something smelled fishy from the report of the robbery, and it turns out that this guy was even worse than a gunpoint robber. It's unbelievable that this man was able to work for the DOC for more than a decade and be able to do something as horrific as this. Justice has been served and Walters will never be able to terrorize another innocent person again.

Rikers CO Facing Serious Charges (Again)

Ricard Walters (YouTube)

It appears that when I discussed a Rikers Correctional Officer named Ricardo Walters and his alleged robbery at gunpoint (allegedly his service weapon, mind you) of a middle-aged woman at a bus stop in Hempstead, New York, it was only a small picture of the overall story. It was reported today that Walters is now the suspect in a number of rapes around his hometown of Hempstead, New York. In addition to two rape charges, Walters has been charged with six counts of kidnapping, five counts of robbery, and four counts of sex abuse, among other charges.

I remember that when I posted about Walters' first arrest and brought up his previous incident in which he killed a man who was stealing a CD player from his car, I was rebutted by a commenter who said that I was judging Walters and that I did not know him. I was told that he was a church-going family man. This all could be true, but these new allegations, especially coming after his alleged robbery of the woman at the bus stop last September, are going to be hard to defend. Various news outlets are reporting that they have DNA evidence that links Walters to some rapes and they fear that he may have committed more. In the words of Nassau PD detective Anthony Repalone, "The bottom line is: This guy, he's a predator." Plus, DNA evidence tends to be pretty solid in court.

In one incident, Walters is alleged to have ambushed a woman after she loaded her 3 year old into her car and was putting her groceries away. He allegedly put a gun to the child's head and forced the mother to perform sex acts on him. How does someone who does this maintain a job at Rikers Island for 11 years? I certainly hope Walters never took advantage of any inmates at Rikers, which has been known to happen before. A look at any complaints against Walters by inmates or staff should be revisited, as it appears that Walters may not be an upstanding citizen. What should also be revisited is the shooting back in April of 2006 in which he killed someone allegedly breaking into cars in his Hempstead neighborhood. If this man is capable of doing what prosecutors charge he did, then another look should be taken at this case. It could be he was well within his rights when he shot and killed the guy that he did, but given these circumstances a closer look is certainly garnered.

Sign at Rikers Island, where Walters used to work
 (peterkreder's Flickr)

As if this case could not get more disgusting, Newsday is reporting that police are looking into the possibility that Walters targeted Latina women under the assumption that they may be undocumented immigrants in this country and thus less likely to report any kind of assault. This possibility has arisen because, as the article explains, all but one of his known alleged victims were Latina and most were undocumented.

As I said before, all of this is mounting against Walters as his innocence looks slimmer and slimmer. Barring a massive conspiracy against him by multiple women who probably do not know each other, then I would say that DNA evidence is pretty damning. One of the Newsday articles said that he was already in jail awaiting trial for the robbery charge. These are going to be tough charges to defend oneself against (again, DNA evidence). It will be interesting to see whether he pleads out or not (if the DA is even willing to offer him anything).