Suspect in Queens sexual assault identified from DNA collected during prior RVC theft arrest

A Long Island man who was arrested by Rockville Centre police in 2016 for stealing aluminum bleachers from various local parks was nabbed by the New York City Police Department and charged with using a stun gun to sexually assault a woman in Queens.

The NYPD arrested Mark Andrade, 46, on Aug. 1 in connection with the 2013 attack in Forest Park, during which they believe Andrade came up behind a 29-year-old female jogger, tased her in the neck and sexually assaulted her. Police said he may be responsible for five other sex assaults in Forest Park between 2011 and 2013, with alleged victims ranging in age from 13 to 69, the Daily News reported.

He was charged with attempted rape, robbery, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of sexual abuse, according to police. He was arraigned on Aug. 3 in Queens Criminal Court with a $2 million bond, $500,000 in cash, which was not posted, according to court records.

This was not Andrade’s only arrest. Suffolk County police arrested Andrade on Feb. 3 for insurance fraud, and he pleaded guilty on July 21. He served his time, but was reportedly turned over to NYPD because his DNA matched a beer bottle that was found at the scene of the 2013 attack.

Andrade was caught on the DNA swab taken from his arrest by RVC police last year, according to Village spokeswoman Julie Scully. The Herald previously reported that, according to police, between December 2015 and January 2016, Andrade, who was living in Lynbrook at the time, drove his van to the Rockville Centre Sports Complex on Peninsula Boulevard, and Lister Field on Sunrise Highway, where he dismantled and removed aluminum seating bleachers. In a few instances, police said, he concealed what he could not carry and returned the next day to retrieve it.

After the larcenies, he would immediately sell the aluminum to local scrap yards, according to police. Additionally, the Herald reported last year, Andrade was charged with the larceny of auto parts from a vehicle that was parked at Rockville Centre’s Department of Public Works storage yard.

The serial scrapper’s Rockville Centre thefts amounted to roughly $10,000. According to Scully, his 2016 arrest concluded a lengthy investigation that included a search warrant of his home, and was made possible because of surveillance camera footage.