New Rochelle Serial Groper, Sex Offender Faces 4 Years

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – A serial groper who terrorized New Rochelle women over the summer is facing as many as four years in prison after pleading guilty to a pair of felonies that include failure to disclose that he is a sex offender.

New Rochelle native Guillermo Merino is facing prison time for groping several women.
Photo Credit: *Westchester County District Attorney's Office*

Zak Failla

10/07/2014 2:30 p.m.

On four separate occasions over an 11-day span in June, New Rochelle native Guillermo Merino, 39, grabbed the buttocks of various women without consent or purpose while walking throughout the city.

This isn’t the first time Merino has gotten into trouble for putting his hands where they don’t belong. In 2007, he was convicted of forcible touching on three instances. The investigation into the suspect led police to discover he was a level two sex offender who failed to disclose that information to officials after moving to New Rochelle from New York City earlier this year.

The charges Merino would have faced from this complaint when he was arrested on Monday, June 30, would have been forcible touching, a misdemeanor, but because he has been convicted of that offense more than twice within the past decade, he is guilty of felony counts of persistent sexual abuse and failure to register as a sex offender.

Merino will be sentenced on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Westchester County Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lopez, the deputy chief of the sex crimes bureau, is prosecuting the case.

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