By Jeff Lipton
Inwood neighbors expressed shock this week after police charged a 39-year-old man with sodomizing a five-year-old neighbor entrusted to his care.
The suspect, identified as Eduardo Larin, of 172 Mott Avenue, was charged on Friday, August 18, at 6 P.M. with sodomy in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child, according to investigators.
Police said the incident occurred on Friday, July 14, at 9 P.M., when Mr. Larin allegedly sodomized the girl while baby-sitting her, in the bedroom of his home. The young girl told her mother about the incident on August 3, said Detective Sergeant John King of the Fourth Squad, who added that it took her that long to say something because she's five and she may have thought she did something wrong. Detectives began an investigation more than two weeks ago and interviewed Mr. Larin, who reportedly admitted the act and was then arrested by Detective James Knoblach of the Fourth Squad, officials said. "He's kind of remorseful," Sergeant King said.
The victim attended pre-K at the Number Four School in Inwood during the last school year and is scheduled to attend the kindergarten there in the fall, neighbors said.
Neighbors were stunned to learn that the alleged incident happened on their block.
"Oh, my God," said one elderly resident when she was informed about the sodomy charge. "What a shame. I lived here all my life and I never heard anything that bad happening around here.
"I'm shocked," she added. "Wait until I tell my husband. He'll be scared stiff. He'll want to move away from here...It's getting bad over here. People come from all over. You don't know who they are."
Neighbors said Mr. Larin, an independent contractor who works in masonry, moved into the Mott Avenue home last December. They added that they believe he's separated from his wife and just won custody of his two sons, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old. His six-year-old daughter lives with her mother, neighbors said. "He [Mr. Larin] is very quiet and he tried to be very friendly with all the kids in the neighborhood," said one woman whose daughter is close with the five-year-old victim.
The woman said Mr. Larin put up a pool in his backyard this summer and invited neighborhood kids to use it, but she said he would stay in the water with them, which she felt was inappropriate. "I just didn't think that was right, for him to play in the pool with the kids," she said.
No one answered the doorbell to Mr. Larin's apartment on the side of the building at 172 Mott Avenue and he could not be reached for comment. Neighbors said he told them that the incident was a "misunderstanding."
"I heard that he worked so hard to get custody of his sons, which is why this incident doesn't make any sense to me," said one neighbor.
"I always watch my kids, which is why my husband works and I stay at home," she said.
She added that the news of the incident has "disturbed the whole routine of the neighborhood." "Parents don't have trust in each other right now. We don't know what to do. When my kids go outside, I go outside with them."
Inspector Frank Matzen, commanding officer for the Fourth Precinct, said, "It's very important that you make sure you know who you are leaving your children with. Certainly, you should be suspicious of anyone not well-known to you and make sure you do a thorough background check on these people. And listen to your children. If they are acting in an unusual manner, question them about what may be bothering them."
One man who lives on the block said news of the incident doesn't frighten him. "You don't want those kind of guys around. Those guys, you could just get rid of them, that's all," he said.
Mr. Larin was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on Saturday, August 19, and was being held on $25,000 bail, authorities said.
Mr. Larin has an arrest record in the Fourth Precinct dating back to 1992 for assault, after a fight in which a weapon was involved, detectives said. "Then there were also some small domestic things with his wife," Sergeant King said.
