Tech Exec Gets 7 Years In Prison For Times Square Sex Assault: DA

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — An executive at a tech company is facing seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman at a Times Square hotel, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced.

Sanjay Tripathy, 48, was sentenced Wednesday to serve seven years in prison and seven years of post-release supervision after being convicted on charges such as sex abuse, assault and unlawful imprisonment for a 2016 assault of a woman he met online, prosecutors said.

Tripathy and the woman met for drinks at a bar in the Times Square W Hotel after the two met on the website SeekingArrangments — which markets itself as a dating service for "sugar daddies" — prosecutors said. After drinks, the tech executive invited the woman up to his room on the 49th floor of the hotel, prosecutors said.

Later that night — when the woman asked to leave the hotel room — Tripathy became violent, prosecutors said. He threw her on his bed, placed his hands on her neck and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. When the woman attempted to escape the room he dragged her on the floor, punched her in the face and head and sexually assaulted her a second time, prosecutors said.

The woman flagged down a police officer in front of the hotel the next morning and Tripathy was arrested outside of his hotel room, prosecutors said.

"This powerful executive sought to silence this survivor and invalidate her testimony, exploiting the power imbalance between them and falsely insisting that his torturous acts were consensual," District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., said in a statement. "He thought that police, prosecutors, and jurors would believe that her significant bruising, chipped tooth, and blood in the hotel room simply amounted to rough-housing."

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