Sex Offender Arrested In 2 Forest Hills Lobby Muggings: Police

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A registered sex offender living in a Brooklyn shelter was arrested Sunday and accused of attacking two elderly women in their Forest Hills apartment building lobbies during a pair of robberies.

Richard Smalls, 58, stands accused of attacking and robbing a woman in a building near 64th Avenue and 98th Street late last month, then attacking another woman and stealing several packages from the lobby of a residential building near Queens Boulevard and 67th Drive earlier this month, police said in a news release.

In the first attack, on July 28, Smalls is accused of grabbing the 72-year-old woman's neck and running off with her jewelry and $60 cash, according to police.

On Aug. 9, Smalls is accused of choking a 78-year-old woman and grabbing several packages lying on her lobby's floor.

Smalls is registered as a level-three sex offender, meaning he is considered a threat to public safety, according to the state.

He lives in a homeless shelter in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, police said.

Smalls spent eight years behind bars after he was convicted of rape and sodomy in 1981, then landed back in prison in 2003 after breaking into a Rego Park woman's home and forcing her to perform a sex act, according to the Daily News.

He was released on parole last year, officials told the Daily News.