A Suffern man has pleaded guilty to a rape charge in an attack on a woman in the village – and Rockland’s top prosecutor is railing against the judge’s promised sentence as too lenient.
Jose Pirir-Morales, 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape July 9 after Rockland Judge Kevin Russo offered him the minimum sentence, five years in state prison.
Pirir-Morales attacked the 43-year-old woman from behind as she was walking home on Clinton Place in the early morning hours of Sept. 20, 2025. He was arrested four days later after the victim and others reported having contact with him prior to the assault, police said.
The defendant faced up to 25 years in prison and District Attorney Thomas Walsh II said the prosecution requested a 15-year prison term.
In announcing the guilty plea, Walsh said in a statement that Russo’s promised sentence “does not adequately reflect the gravity of the defendant’s conduct of violently attacking and raping the victim.”
“Such leniency undermines the interest of justice and confidence that victims and the public should have in our courts,” the DA said.
But defense lawyer Kevin Dunlap said there was no DNA match to his client and that Pirir-Morales has insisted that while there was sexual conduct it was not intercourse. He said that his client should have faced a lesser felony sex offense for which the maximum prison sentence was only seven years, suggesting the sentence promise was not particularly lenient.
“What he did to that woman was terrible,” Dunlap said. “What he was accused of didn’t match what happened.”
Russo said he would also sentence Pirir-Morales to 10 years of post-release supervision and the defendant will have to register as a sex offender when his prison term ends. Pirir-Morales remains held at the Rockland County jail until sentencing, which the judge scheduled for Oct. 7.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland DA rails against rape sentence for Suffern man as too lenient
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
