Rape of 10-Year-Old Nets 7-Year Sentence
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A Mexican man who admitted he repeatedly raped his 10-year-old stepdaughter and eventually fathered her child was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison.
Eleazar Alvarado, 36, of Manhattan, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a course of sexual conduct against a child. He admitted that from August 2002 through September 2004, he had sex with the girl, his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage.
State Supreme Court Justice James Yates had offered Alvarado five years in prison despite the prosecution’s objections and request for a 20-year sentence. After hearing that Alvarado sometimes struck the girl, the judge hiked the term to seven years.
Alvarado, a waiter at the Sabor restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and his wife have been together since 1998 and have a daughter between them. Prosecutors said an investigation concerning that child was conducted and no charges were filed.
Alvarado’s lawyer, Edward Sapone, called the case “one of the strangest I have ever seen.” He said that his client had no previous contact with the criminal justice system in this country or in his native Mexico and that everyone in his community loved him.
Mr. Sapone said his client’s behavior was an aberration, begun in part because of alcohol and his wife’s sexual unavailability in the late stages of her pregnancy. He said the sexual activity with the stepdaughter began as kissing and then touching when she was 9, and by the time she was 10, they were having sexual intercourse.
In late 2004, the girl seemed lethargic. After doctors examined her over several weeks, they determined she was 7 1/2 months pregnant. The girl gave birth at age 11, Mr. Sapone said, and the baby was given up for adoption.
The lawyer said Alvarado never denied having sex with his stepdaughter. He said the defendant wrote out a full confession in Spanish when questioned by police.
The judge ordered five years of post-prison supervision for Alvarado but said, “You’re probably going to be deported [to Mexico] after the sentence.”
The judge also signed a final order of protection barring Alvarado from contacting his stepdaughter.
