Man who terrorised and sexually abused Rye teenager gets 15 years in prison

RYE, NY – A man who preyed on the best instincts of teenage girls and tormented a Sound Shore community is going to prison, giving his victims a chance to live their lives while he atones for his crimes.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced Monday that the Port Chester man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting two teenagers in two separate attacks in Rye in June 2023.

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“Westchester County is safer now that this defendant is no longer on the streets,” Rocah said. “No one has to fear for their safety in their neighborhood or community. We thank the brave survivors who have shown incredible strength by coming forward to work with our office to ensure this defendant faces justice.”

Richard Olmino, 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sexual abuse on April 1. He was also sentenced to 20 years of probation and must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

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On June 23, 2023, around midnight, Olmino asked a 16-year-old jogging in Rye Town Park for help, then took her cellphone and threw her to the ground as she tried to flee. Olmino told the victim he had a knife before exposing himself and sexually assaulting her. A park security guard interrupted the attack, after which the defendant fled. Police investigating the scene found Olmino’s cellphone.

DNA evidence from the incident linked Olmino to another incident that occurred on June 3, 2023, on Parsons Street in Rye. There, around 1:30 a.m., he approached an 18-year-old walking home from an after-prom party, asked for help, then took her cellphone, threatened her, and then sexually assaulted her.

The Town of Rye Police Department arrested Olmino at his Port Chester home on June 25, 2023, after police identified and located him using his cellphone with assistance from the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force.

Olmino has two warrants out for his arrest in Connecticut, including one for public nuisance, and a criminal case pending in Suffolk County. He has been held in custody at the Westchester County Jail since his arrest.

“No matter how much I begged or cried, you showed me no mercy,” one of the victims said in a statement to the court. “In fact, you threatened to harm me… I thought I was going to die there, alone, in the city I loved… What you did was heinous, but it did not break me. I am here today to look you in the face and say everything I could not say that night.”

In fact, both victims spoke of ongoing pain and defiance in the face of abuse by a stranger.

“You witnessed, exploited and took full advantage of my kindness, empathy and generosity towards you, and in that moment you made something so beautiful about me seem so ugly…” the second victim said in her statement to the court. “What happened was not my fault and I will never stop being kind, empathetic and generous. That is something you will never destroy about me.”