Nassau DA: Hempstead serial rapist caught using DNA

An alleged serial rapist who prosecutors said preyed on women in Hempstead is facing sex crimes charges after his DNA connected him to three attacks, according to authorities.

Adell Hardwick, 32, of Hollis, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of predatory sexual assault, first-degree rape and criminal sexual act. The Queens man put in his plea from Nassau’s jail using Skype during a virtual arraignment that followed a July grand jury indictment.

Prosecutors said the alleged rapes happened between 2015 and 2020 and that Hardwick faces up to 125 years to life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas called the attacks “vicious” in a statement Wednesday and alleged that the crimes were the work of “a serial predator.”

The district attorney added that her office would "aggressively seek justice for these women," calling Nassau "safer now that this defendant is apprehended."

Police arrested Hardwick on April 23 following a reexamination of the cases after his DNA was a match in all three alleged attacks, according to Singas’ office.

Authorities said that on the evening of Jan. 29, a woman was leaving a Hempstead business when Hardwick approached her from behind with a knife. He then brought her to an abandoned house on Hilton Avenue and raped her, according to the allegations.

Prosecutors also alleged that on the evening of June 4, 2019, Hardwick pushed a woman into a tree and raped her in Hempstead’s Denton Green Park.

The other alleged rape happened on the night of Jan. 25, 2015, when authorities say Hardwick dragged a woman who was walking on Main Street into an abandoned house and attacked her.

Prosecutor Jared Rosenblatt said during Hardwick’s arraignment that the defendant told detectives in June 2019 at a hospital that he had been with a woman who was drinking but had no type of sexual contact with her and "there would not be any biological secretion.”

But Hardwick interrupted the prosecutor Wednesday, declaring “that is false,” before Hardwick’s attorney, Glenn Hardy, advised him not to speak.

Rosenblatt said Hardwick also made a statement that was videotaped while speaking to police in April 2020 in a detective squad office and a copy of the recording had been made available to the defense.

The prosecutor also indicated two of the alleged victims, referred to as Jane Does, were involved in identification procedures that related to the accusations. The woman from the 2015 case has since died, according to the authorities.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald ordered that Hardwick continue to be held without bail at Nassau’s jail.

Hardy said in an interview later that his client "has complete confidence in both me and the justice system" and believed the case would be resolved in his favor.

"There is much more to a case than DNA," the Garden City lawyer added.

Hardy also said that "mistakes, unfortunately, have been made in the past and are still being made regarding DNA and all sorts of evidence."

State correction records show Hardwick previously served two prison terms in New York after convictions for attempted strangulation, attempted assault and attempted criminal possession of a weapon.

He was in prison between 2011 and 2013 and again between 2017 and 2019. He went free in January 2019 after his most recent incarceration, according to the records.