Sex Abuse Sentence For Man Who Invaded College Dorm Room

PLEASANTVILLE, NY — A New York City man who pushed his way into a Pace University student's dorm room in Pleasantville will spend time in prison for sex abuse.

Westchester County Court Judge Susan Cacace sentenced Ariel Caro to two concurrent terms for the charges to which he pleaded guilty in July:

• Attempted Sex Abuse in the First Degree, a class E felony
• Attempted Burglary in the Second Degree as a sexually motivated crime, a class D felony

For each count, Caro will serve 2.5 years in state prison and 10 years post-release supervision. In addition, he must register as a sex offender, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced Tuesday.

Caro knocked on the student's door at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11, 2018. He pushed his way in, blocked her from leaving, exposed himself and began masturbating while talking to her.

Prosecutors said she used her wits, and began acting as if she suffered from a form of autism as she had seen on television. As she got louder, he fled.

She called her mother, who called campus security. They checked surveillance video and found Caro, who was not a student, had been in another dorm as well. Other students reported an unknown man knocking on their dorm room doors.

Mount Pleasant Police found Caro, 32, had stashed his possessions and drug paraphernalia in a vacant dorm room earlier, prosecutors said.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lopez read aloud the victim’s impact statement. In it, the student described the fear and horror she felt. “Perhaps one might think that because I was not “physically injured”–that perhaps the attack was not so serious–this is not so. This attack was heinous and the attacker in my opinion is a threat to society.” She added, “I wondered whether my life ambition of going to university was misplaced and thought about dropping out of college, but realized that this would only harm me further…I hope one day I will feel safe again and not so helpless, a feeling I never had before this horrible attack.”

Lopez, Chief of the Sex Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case.