ENTRY: Derek Sarauw; New York; By Meghan Barrett Cousino: Published by The National Registry of Exonerations, on January 15, 2026.
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 23-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 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 a latent fingerprint on the light bulb from Castle Hill Houses came back as a match for Scott, 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."
The entire story can be read at:
https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/19281
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AMFINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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