Charged with assaulting taxi passenger
New York State troopers on Dec. 5 arrested a Florida man on charges that he raped a woman in Kent in 2017.
Orlando Martinez Morales, 34, of Jacksonville, was charged with two felonies — rape and criminal sexual act — and a misdemeanor, forcible touching.
Police allege that on Sept. 2, 2017, Martinez Morales, operating as a taxi driver, agreed to drive a woman from New York City to a location north of Albany. While en route, they said, Martinez Morales stopped the vehicle on the shoulder of the Taconic State Parkway, entered the back seat of the vehicle and sexually assaulted the victim. They allege he then took the woman into nearby woods and raped her.
On Dec. 5, with assistance from Jacksonville sheriff’s deputies and New York State troopers assigned to the U.S. Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force, Martinez Morales was located and taken into custody in Jacksonville and returned to New York.
Martinez Morales was arraigned in Putnam County Supreme Court and remanded to the county jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail or $500,000 secure bond.