The “extraordinarily low” six-month sentence handed to a trans illegal immigrant who admitted to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Manhattan sparked outrage Wednesday from a victims’ rights group and left even former prosecutors in shock.
Legal eagles were baffled by the slap-on-the-wrist plea deal the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office struck with Nicol Alexandra Contreras-Suarez, a 31-year-old transgender woman from Colombia, in the vicious 2025 assault of a 14-year-old boy in East Harlem.
“I didn’t know you could get six months on this,” said Seth Zuckerman, a former prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA’s Office and current criminal defense lawyer.
Steven Hirsch for NY Post
“It’s generally a minimum of two and a maximum of seven, so I think something must be wrong here,” he said, referring to the penalty for the charge of second-degree rape, which Contreras-Suarez pleaded guilty to on Tuesday.
“I have got clients charged in similar statutes who are not given the same opportunity to get such a favorable deal,” Zuckerman told The Post.
The convicted rapist was promised a sentence of just six months, which has already been served, a sweetheart deal even by existing statutory standards.
The light sentence also didn’t sit well with Mark Bederow, a New York City defense attorney and former prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office who has worked many rape cases over his career.
“Traditionally, somebody who is preying upon a child, following them into a location and raping them — that’s a terrible crime,” he said.
He called the promised six-month jail term for the sick assault “extraordinarily low,” especially as Contreras-Suarez, who has been locked up on Rikers Island since their arrest last February, will get credit for time served at their April 27 sentencing.
Given the immigration status of the deranged perpetrator — who was also wanted in another state for other violent crimes at the time of the attack — “that’s not generally the type of client that engenders a lot of sympathy,” Bederow added.
“Normally, the minimum for this crime would be two years, unless there are circumstances found by the court, which they would put on the record, to allow a lesser sentence,” he said.
“I don’t know what those were in this case, other than the fact they wanted to spare the child from testifying and the defendant was going to be deported,” he said.
“It’s just not a good look for the DA, justifying making a light sentence because the person is scheduled to be deported, because many people are not,” he said, referring to Big Apple sanctuary policies that tie local officers’ hands in cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“In terms of not wanting the child to testify and be retraumatized, it’s understandable on some level. But it is certainly the optics of a very sweetheart deal for someone who committed a terrible crime.”
DA Alvin Bragg’s office said the resolution was reached in close consultation with the victim’s family, sparing the teenager from having to testify to both the grand jury and over several days at trial.
“We expect the defendant to remain detained and be deported following sentencing, due to the felony conviction,” a spokesperson for the DA’s Office said in a statement after Judge Michele Rodney accepted the plea during a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing Tuesday.
Jennifer Harrison, founder of the advocacy group Victims Rights NY and a critic of Bragg, said it sent a chilling message.
“Let’s not pretend this sentence reflects real justice. It doesn’t. It sends a dangerous message that even the most horrific crimes against children won’t be met with the full weight of the law,” she told The Post.
“And what message does that send beyond this case? That predators can come into New York, rape a child, destroying their lives and still expect leniency.”
The contemptible pervert, who was born male, is scheduled to be freed next month unless federal authorities are able to intervene and remove them from the country.
The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post as to what, if any, options they were pursuing to ensure Contreras-Suarez doesn’t remain free to potentially claim more victims.
Contreras-Suarez was picked up for illegally entering the US in San Ysidro, California, in March of 2023, but was allowed to proceed into the country by the Biden administration.
