Richard Smalls (National Sex Offender Public Website)
Aug. 19, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
A serial sex offender who served time for rape has been charged with choking and robbing two elderly women in their Queens apartment lobbies.
Richard Smalls attacked the women – both in their 70s – in two separate incidents that occurred within the last month, according to police.
Smalls, 58, has been charged with two counts of robbery, strangulation, and burglary, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The ex-convict allegedly attacked a 72-year-old woman on July 28 when he followed her into her apartment building in the vicinity of 64th Avenue and 98th Street, according to police. He grabbed and choked the pensioner while she was collecting her mail in the lobby before stealing her jewelry and cash that was worth around $500 in total.
Smalls allegedly struck again on Aug. 9 in the vicinity of Queens Boulevard and 67th Drive when he followed a 78-year old woman into her building lobby and – using the same tactic – choked and threatened the woman before making off with a number of packages that were in the lobby, police said.
The assailant, who lives in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, is a registered sex offender and was convicted of raping a 39-year-old woman in 1981, according to the national sex offender website.
Smalls was behind bars again in 2003 after he attacked a 29-year-old woman in Rego Park and forced her to perform a sex act on him, police said.
