STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A 45-year-old unhoused man accused of assaulting a New York University student in Manhattan has a history of disturbing behavior, including a 2018 arrest on Staten Island.
Prosecutors said the defendant, James Rizzo Jr., slapped the 20-year-old woman on the buttocks, grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground in the Dec. 1 incident, which was captured in surveillance footage.
The woman, originally from Texas, posted a video on TikTok directly following the ordeal, expressing shock and anger about what happened.
Rizzo Jr. was arrested the next day on charges that included persistent sexual abuse and misdemeanor assault, court records indicate.
At his Dec. 3 arraignment hearing, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. Justice Jeffrey A. Gershuny ordered he be remanded without bail, before adjourning the case to Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
The defendant has multiple prior convictions, including persistent sexual abuse and criminal mischief as a hate crime. He also has multiple ongoing cases in Manhattan, separate from the sidewalk slapping incident, for charges that include assault and burglary.
Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society representing Rizzo Jr. in his latest case declined to comment Monday.
Squatting in NYU building
Police said they caught up with Rizzo Jr. the day after the attack in a vacant 17th floor penthouse inside a university-owned building, where he had been squatting. Inside the apartment, investigators found items he allegedly had stolen from neighbors, the New York Daily News reported.
The building housed NYU staff, graduate students and some residents unaffiliated with the university. There is a doorman but they do not check ID because of the mix of residents, according to the outlet.
John Beckman, the senior vice president for public affairs and strategic communications at NYU, told ABC News that he was happy the suspect has been arrested.
“The university is pleased that a suspect has been apprehended in the attack on one of its students that took place Monday morning on a Broadway sidewalk,” said Beckman. “We take this incident very seriously. We are continuing to offer support to the student, and our Campus Safety Department assisted the victim and worked with the police investigating the incident.”
Lengthy rap sheet includes S.I. hate crime
In 2018, a Staten Island judge sentenced Rizzo Jr. to jail time and probation for a hate crime perpetrated against a neighbor in Rossville, where he was living at the time.
He scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on a Jewish neighbor’s garage door, according to local law enforcement
Following his arrest, Rizzo Jr. stated to investigators that he knew the victims were Jewish “because of the way they spoke,” according to a criminal complaint.
In 2024, a Manhattan judge sentenced Rizzo Jr. to two-years in prison on a sexual abuse conviction. He was paroled in that case in September.