Brentwood man convicted in 2018 rape at West Babylon motel, Suffolk DA's Office says

A 65-year-old man was convicted of the 2018 rape of an 18-year-old woman whom he threatened to kill along with her family if she didn’t comply, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

The man, Pelencho Contrera of Brentwood, faces between 5 and 25 years imprisonment when sentenced on charges of rape, sexual abuse and aggravated sexual abuse, the office said in a news release.

Contrera is to be sentenced on Aug. 3, the release said.

The rape happened Aug. 6, 2018, after Contrera asked the woman, who was visiting family in the United States, to go food shopping with him, the release said.

"Instead, he drove her to the Sunrise Inn in West Babylon where he threatened to kill the victim, her mother and her siblings if she did not do what he wanted. Inside the motel room, the defendant raped her,” the release said.

“Afterwards, while the defendant was getting dressed, the victim took a photograph of his back on her cell phone. The complainant returned home to her country, but 11 months later she walked into the Third Precinct on July 5, 2019, and filed a complaint," the release said.

“The next day, on July 6, 2019, Det. Jack Balaguera of the Suffolk County Police’s Third Squad went to the Sunrise Inn and obtained the registration card with the defendant's name on it from the date of the crime, August 6, 2018. On July 7, 2019, the defendant was placed under arrest at his house," the release said.

Contrera's attorney, Christopher Brocato, said that Contrera denies the allegations and that they were retribution because Contrera wasn't willing to sponsor a green card for the 18-year-old woman, who is from the Dominican Republic. 

"Our position is that this is completely made up," Brocato said of the rape allegations. Brocato said the photo of Contrera's back possibly came via a third party during "another liaison with someone else." 

Brocato said Contrera was acquitted of charges alleging he raped the woman when she was 15, on Jan. 19, 2016.

Contrera was jailed upon conviction, Brocato said.

No one who was working the year the crime happened is still employed at the Sunrise Inn, said Ish Patel, who answered the phone there.