On July 19, 2021, Joshua Vasquez aka “Flex” (dob: 3/25/1994), a resident of the City of Schenectady, was sentenced based upon his prior guilty pleas, which occurred, on May 20, 2021, to: one count of Rape in the Second Degree, a class D violent felony for engaging in sexual intercourse with a female under the age fifteen, one count of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, a class B violent felony for engaging in oral sexual conduct with the same victim, while using forcible compulsion, and one count of Criminal Solicitation in the Fourth Degree, a class A misdemeanor for requesting that a third party pay the child victim a sum of money to drop the charges.
Mr. Vasquez received sentences that result in a total of fifteen (15) years of incarceration followed by a twenty-five (25) year period of post-release supervision (commonly known as parole). In addition, Mr. Vasquez is required to register as a sex offender upon his release from
prison and a full order of protection was issued for the victim. The plea and sentence were presided over by Acting Schenectady County Court Judge, Mark J. Caruso. Judge Caruso.
The above pleas and sentences resolved two separate indictments, totaling, twenty-four [24] criminal charges against Mr. Vasquez. Those indictments alleged, that in the months of April and May 2019, at two separate locations in the City of Schenectady, Mr. Vasquez, then aged twenty-five [25] engaged in multiple sexual acts with a thirteen [13] year old girl who was known to him. Some acts occurred at her family’s residence and other acts occurred in a vacant apartment building that Mr. Vasquez broke into for the purpose of sexual contact with the child. Aside from the sexual contact Mr. Vasquez provided the child marijuana and engaged in a pattern of physical violence directed at the child. Mr. Vasquez was taken into custody in June of 2019, for those crimes. In December of 2019, while confined at the Schenectady County Jail the defendant commanded or directed a third-party to locate and provide a cash payment to the child to get her and her family to drop the charges.
The case was investigated by members of Schenectady County Child Protective Services and Det. Matthew Thorne, then a member of the Schenectady Police Department’s Youth Aid Bureau, a unit of detectives specifically, tasked and trained to investigate crimes involving children. The child’s disclosures were corroborated by statements made by Mr. Vasquez to Det. Thorne during a recorded interview at the Schenectady Police Department, in which Mr. Vasquez admitted to engaging in sexual contact with the victim. Forensic evidence analyzed by the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center further corroborated the child’s disclosures.
The People are represented by Assistant District Attorney John J. Carson. Mr. Vasquez is represented by Attorney Mark Sacco. For further information contact Assistant District Attorney John J. Carson at 518-810-7365.