An off-duty cop and an expectant mother — who were both brutally beaten and robbed by a career criminal — finally got to confront their tormentor in court today as the menace was sent to prison for 90 years.
“I’m not about to stand here and whine about how all the things you did to me affected by life,” NYPD Detective Cassandra Whitaker said in court as she began her impact statement. “I have to live with the fact that because I couldn’t stop you so many others had to suffer.”
Kenneth Washington, 31 was found guilty of three home-invasions, including the vicious assault of Whitaker that put her in the hospital for a week, the attempted rape of a 6-months-pregnant Stacey Brown and the robbery of Luisa Gonzalez’s home.
The crimes spanned an 11-month-period from 2006 until Washington’s arrest in October 2007. He was linked to the break-ins by DNA left at the scenes and IDs by his victims during the three-week trial.
“How much did you get for all the items you stole from us?” Whitaker said as Washington watched her attentively. “Be generous, because that’s what you sold for your life.”
Washington tried to maintain his innocence. “I would like to send my condolences to the families about these bad crimes,” he whined. “God Bless.”
The court watchers exclaimed their disgust with the ex-con and Justice Gregory Lasak questioned his crime-denying statement asking, “Is that your idea of an apology?”
“You’ve violated their right to feel secure and safe in their own home … if this wasn’t a courtroom I would use other words,” the judge lashed at Washington.
“I hope you give him a really long time,” victim Stacey Brown said tearfully in a brief statement.
Whitaker was awoken in the early morning of Aug. 17, 2006 to see Washington going through her dresser. She reached for her police revolver and a struggle for the gun followed. The burglar managed to take it and beat her about the head before fleeing with her police badge, jewelry and other property.
The cop was hospitalized for a week with 30 staples in her head to close the wounds. Washington’s bloody T-shirt was found just blocks away from her house.
Four months later, Washington’s DNA was found inside Gonzalez’s home when he left a pair of gloves after breaking in while she was at work. He stole jewelry, her children’s video games and other property.
The then-pregnant Brown was sleeping in her parent’s home in July 15, 2007 when Washington broke in and assaulted her. Brown managed to break free and had to jump almost 10 feet from the bathroom window to the ground outside to escape the fiend.
While she ran for her life to a neighbor’s house, Washington drank from an iced tea container that was left at the scene and later found to have his DNA on it.
“You deserve no mercy from this court,” Justice Lasak said. “You don’t deserve to take another breath outside the walls of a state prison.”
“Kenneth Washington, you could have been anything, now you’re just a pathetic statistic, another beautiful black man rotting in jail,” Whitaker said, ended her two-page statement with a terse, “Good Luck.”