On August 16, 1973, two women reported being raped at the Castle Hill Houses, a public-housing development in the Bronx, New York. The victims said they were attacked at different times, and each described the perpetrator as a Black man who had pressed a knife to her throat and spoken in a clear voice. Both attacks took place at the top of a staircase in Castle Hill Houses, and the victims said the rapist had removed the only light bulb above the stair landing with his right hand.
Police showed the two victims photo lineups, and they each identified a photo of 22-year-old Derek Sarauw, a postal worker who had been arrested years earlier for a minor infraction.
Sarauw denied involvement in the crimes. He worked the night shift at the post office and said he had been asleep when the daytime rapes at Castle Hill Houses occurred. His wife was working at the time of the crimes, so there was no one who had been with him to confirm this alibi.
Sarauw, who was lefthanded and spoke with a pronounced stutter, convinced his attorney, Joe Klempner, that this was a case of mistaken identity. Sarauw requested a polygraph test, which Klempner arranged, but the results were inconclusive. Sarauw then paid for a hypnotist and provided testimony after ingesting “truth serum” and while Klempner was convinced by the results, these tests were not admissible in court.
The case against Sarauw went to trial in Bronx County Supreme Court in March 1974, with Justice Isidore Dollinger presiding. Klempner represented Sarauw, and District Attorney Mario Merola prosecuted the case. On March 5, 1974, the jury found Sarauw guilty on two counts of rape.
On June 19, 1974, Justice Dollinger sentenced Sarauw to 10 years in prison. However, in an unusual move, Dollinger–who had doubts about Sarauw’s guilt–allowed Sarauw to remain free on bail. Klempner, convinced of Sarauw’s innocence, continued to represent him without a fee. Shortly after the sentencing, the New York Daily News published a story about Sarauw and his claims of innocence. Several days later, Merola received a phone call from an unknown man. The caller said the news story had been correct because the caller was the actual rapist, but he refused to provide his name and hung up.
Around this time, Police Detective Larry DePaolis and Officer Larry Wood began investigating 33-year-old Joseph Scott in a string of sexual assaults and noticed similarities between these crimes and those for which Sarauw had been convicted. They arrested Scott in November 1975 in connection with other sexual assaults. Klempner heard of this arrest and interviewed Scott, who was described in newspapers as a “dead ringer” for Sarauw. Klempner contacted the district attorney’s office about his suspicion that Scott was the true perpetrator and learned that Merola’s team was already looking into Scott in connection with the Castle Hill Houses crimes.
When forensic analysts reported that Scott was the source of a latent fingerprint on the light bulb from Castle Hill Houses, the district attorney’s office became sufficiently convinced that Sarauw’s conviction had been a case of mistaken identity. Scott, a former counselor at St. Agatha’s Home for Children in Nanuet, New York, would ultimately plead guilty in August 1976 to crimes related to 15 rapes.
Dollinger set aside Sarauw’s conviction on December 16, 1975, and granted Merola’s motion to dismiss the indictment on the same day. A newspaper reported that Sarauw quietly said, “the nightmare is over,” before breaking down in tears.
The officers who had worked to prove Sarauw’s innocence were in the courtroom for the dismissal, where they met him for the first time. Afterward, Detective DePaolis met with Sarauw’s supervisors at the post office to help ensure that Sarauw was able to return to his old job.
- Meghan Barrett Cousino
Posting Date: 01-15-2026
