Two off-duty NYPD officers were arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of sexually assaulting an inebriated woman in the Bronx over the summer.
Police officers Julio Alcantara-Santiago, 40, and Christian Garcia, 32, were charged with a series of sexual abuse charges for assaulting an unidentified woman after a night out at a Grand Concourse bar on July 9. was indicted on the charges.
The victim was unable to stand on his own and later passed out, but he has no recollection of leaving the Cuban bar Zona de Cuba.
Instead, her next memory was waking up to two police officers allegedly sexually assaulting her in a bed in an apartment she didn’t recognize, according to the criminal complaint.
But her slight agitation apparently frightened her alleged abusers.
According to the victim, Garcia told the other officers, “Let’s go, she’s awake.”
Later that morning, the woman woke up around 7:30 a.m. and went to a local Bronx hospital to get a rape kit.
Doctors swabbed the woman’s dried saliva, which DNA tests later confirmed matched both NYPD officers, according to the complaint.
Investigators also obtained surveillance footage from Zona de Cuba showing two police officers, the victim and an anonymous female acquaintance leaving the facility at 12:37 a.m.
According to the complaint, the victim was placed between Alcantara-Santiago and Garcia, and the video shows the men supporting her with their arms as she was unable to stand or walk on her own.
The video also shows four people arriving in a car at a female acquaintance’s apartment, where two police officers bring the victim in.
Internal Affairs investigators said in the complaint that the woman was “supported upright and motionless with her eyes closed and mouth open, unable to stand on her own and constantly falling.”
Alcantara-Santiago and Garcia were both charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first- and third-degree sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, and forcible touching.
Both officers have been suspended without pay, the NYPD said.
Alcantara-Santiago was previously arrested for allegedly molesting a woman at Yankee Stadium’s Hard Rock Cafe in September 2022, but Bronx prosecutors dismissed the case the same month after viewing surveillance footage of the incident.
After being acquitted, the officer described the charges as “disgraceful”.
“I have been a police officer for 10 years and have only followed the law, not broken any laws,” he said in a statement at the time.
If you have been sexually assaulted and live in New York, you can receive free and confidential crisis counseling by calling 1-800-942-6906. If you live out of state, dial the 24/7 National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
